RuroKen Star Wars
by Raberba girl
Summary: Kenshin was content as a desert farmer, but now he must master Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu, rescue the captured princess, and blow up the evil government's new battle station before time runs out for the Meiji Rebel Alliance. SW parody, RK relationships.
1. Himura Kenshin Meets a Strange Droid

RuroKen Star Wars

**(ROUGH DRAFT)**

A Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

**Episode I - Himura Kenshin Meets a Strange Droid**

_A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the Tokugawa Empire had grown corrupt and oppressive. A fairly small but extremely determined band of warriors, calling themselves the Meiji Rebel Alliance, rose up to oppose this evil government, in a series of wars that came to be known as the Bakumatsu, short for, "The end is near, bakufu!" An important rebel, Princess Kaoru, had obtained vital information that could lead to the downfall of the Tokugawa government's most fearsome weapon, a battle station with the ability to destroy entire planets. Pursued by the most feared of Emperor Shishio's agents, Darth Enishi, Princess Kaoru's ship was soon overtaken and battered by the imperial starfleet..._

0-0-0

The YA-10 unit awkwardly dodged laser fire, wishing for what felt like the millionth time that it had real joints and flesh to work with instead of this stupid artificial body.

"Yahiko!" a desperate voice hissed.

The YA-10 unit turned curiously. "Princess," it said in a voice that managed to convey confusion and concern through the robotic monotone. "What are you doing here? You should be headed for the escape pods!"

"No, dummy, that's _your_ job," she insisted, grabbing him by one metal arm and dragging him into hiding. "Now hold still while I upload this to your memory; I've already wiped it from the ship's computer system."

"P-Princess," the droid gasped when the data had been stored in its memory circuits. "You mean you're trusting me with something like this? I'm not even human!"

"Could have fooled me, shorty," she said affectionately, then shoved him toward the bank of escape pods. "Now get going, there's no telling when the Edo troopers will find me."

The droid's eyes pulsed rapidly in a way that would have been called passionate if it was human. "Just stay alive, princess," it told her firmly. "I'll get someone to rescue you, even if the only one I can find is me."

"Will you just get going?" she hissed, in order to cover her tears. Then she ran out to distract the enemy soldiers while the little droid made its escape.

Down on the planet Tattooine, over which the space battle had taken place, a good-looking man with a clear face and long red hair was going about his chores on the moisture farm where he lived.

"Kenshin! Keeenshin!" his (adoptive) uncle called.

"What is it, Uncle?" he called back.

"Buncha travelin' merchants. Come help me pick out a new droid!"

Himura Kenshin rose from the laundry he was working on and untied his sleeves. Coming up to where his uncle waited just outside the farm, he glanced over the line of droids curiously.

"Now, they say these here droids are all in peak condition," Kenshin's uncle murmured in his ear, "but ya know how it goes. Use your intuition thingy on 'em, will ya?"

"Hai," Kenshin agreed, and walked down the line, sensing out which of the droids would be most suitable for their needs.

"Hey," one of them suddenly spoke up. "Is that supposed to be a sword?"

Kenshin stared at the YA-10 unit in surprise. Droids did not often speak unless directly addressed. "A shinai, yes. This one does not carry a steel blade."

"Huh," the droid remarked. "Kind of a pansy then, aren't you." It cursed, which gave Kenshin a shock. This droid was not acting normal. "I need a _real_ man to save the princess, not some spacey farm boy!"

"Um...are you really a droid?" Kenshin asked cautiously. "And what did you mean about a princess?"

"Kenshin!" his uncle called from down the line. "Ya found a good one?"

Kenshin looked into the droid's metallic eyes and came to a decision. "This is the one, Uncle." So he led the little droid away as his uncle conducted the transaction.

Later, as Kenshin was cleaning and repairing the YA-10, he curiously tried to see if he could make conversation with this odd machine. "So how did you end up with the merchants, little one?"

"I'm not little!" the droid insisted hotly. "I'm Yahiko, and I got kidnapped by those stupid things when my escape pod crashed in the desert."

Kenshin paused, startled at the droid's assertion, but then remembered that some owners liked to name their personal droids. Perhaps this Yahiko had been highly valued by its previous master. "I see. How troublesome for you, little- er, Yahiko. Where did your escape pod come from?"

The droid suddenly turned very cautious. "Oh, you know...from a spaceship."

Kenshin's hands stilled again, and his eyes narrowed. "There was a space battle earlier today. The suns blocked out any visuals, but the instruments at Aeris Balamb picked up evidence of it."

"And what makes you think I had anything to do with that?" Yahiko burst out frantically.

Kenshin smiled. "So you _did_ have something to do with it?"

"Urk..."

Kenshin patted the droid's head comfortingly. "Whatever you used to be mixed up in, Yahiko, it's over. You belong to this one's uncle now."

_'That's what _you_ think,'_ Yahiko thought silently.

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin was usually the earliest riser on the farm, since he liked to have time to practice with his shinai before the workday started. On this particular morning, however, he was nowhere to be found, since he had discovered that the new YA-10 unit was missing.

"Oi! Oi, little- Yahiko!"

The droid made a frustrated hissing noise from one of its valves, then turned to find Kenshin zooming up in a speeder. "Hi," it said cautiously.

Kenshin quickly hopped out and moved to block the YA-10's path. "What are you doing, Yahiko? You can't leave the farm."

"I just did, didn't I?" the droid pointed out.

"Um...well, yes, but droids are not supposed to run away."

"And yet here I am. Hey, you think you could just kind of get back into your speeder and drive away?"

Kenshin crossed his arms and tried to glare at the droid, but his lips ended up melting into an amused grin instead. "My uncle paid good money for you, Yahiko. This one cannot stand by and watch you waste his investment."

The droid's eyes suddenly flashed in distress. "Look! Behind you!"

Kenshin sighed and shook his head. "Now Yahiko, you cannot honestly expect this one to fall for-"

WHAM

Kenshin crumpled to the ground, felled by a blow to the head.

0-0-0-0-0

"Stupid prison cell," Kaoru fumed, giving the wall one last, frustrated kick. It was like being locked in an illuminated tin can - there was nothing to break the smooth, shiny monotony of metal walls on all sides except a raised alcove that presumably served as a bed, a compact waste removal fixture in one corner, and an air vent that she had already broken her fingernails trying unsuccessfully to pry open. She was getting thirsty, but not desperate enough to drink out of the toilet; that was the only source of water. Despite her growling stomach, it was no use even thinking of food, either; in that respect she was entirely at the mercy of her captors.

Actually, in _every_ respect she was entirely at the mercy of her captors.

Letting out a deep sigh, Kaoru pressed her back against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the floor. "Someone hurry up and rescue me already...or else," she added, now addressing her own brain, "come up with a successful escape plan. Either one of those would be really, really great." She sighed again. "Any time now."

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin groaned, wondering why it hurt so much to wake up.

"Careful there. You have a lump on that thick skull of yours; you'll probably feel woozy for a few minutes."

Kenshin very carefully opened his eyes and sat up, amazed to find himself in a little house rather than wherever he had been attacked. He blinked blearily and focused on the YA-10 recharging in a corner, then on the imposing cloaked figure sitting nearby, drinking sake.

"You...you're Hiko Seijūrō!" Kenshin blurted. "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't that my line?" the annoyed swordsman retorted. "It's _my_ house you're in, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Ah...right."

"What were you doing out there anyway, you idiot? Don't you know there are bandits and slave-traders in that area?"

"This one was looking for the YA unit," Kenshin said ruefully, pointing at the droid. "It, er, ran away."

Yahiko's metallic eyes flared to life. "Yeah, looking for someone like _you_, Hiko-sama. After the way you sent those bandits packing? I've got to ask you, sir - please rescue my mistress, Princess Kaoru of Alderaan's Kamiya clan!"

Hiko swore.

"The princess again," Kenshin mused. "Are you saying that the lady is in trouble?"

"Well, no...unless you call being _captured by Darth Enishi_ trouble!"

Kenshin gasped. "En...Enishi?" For a moment he seemed shocked, then he looked at the floor, fidgeting in distress. "What should this one do...?"

"Hmph. I have an idea." Both Kenshin and Yahiko looked at Hiko in surprise. Hiko clapped his hands resolutely on his knees and got to his feet. "Get up and show me what you can do with that shinai."

"Oro?" Kenshin picked up the light wooden sword that had been placed by the bed in which he woke up. "This one has some small skill in the art of the sword, but bears arms now only in defense of the farm. Unfortunately, circumstances have not-"

THUNK

"Um," Yahiko spoke up. "Maybe you should have aimed somewhere else...that would be his second head injury of the day."

"Oh," Hiko muttered. "Forgot about that."

Kenshin moaned from where he lay sprawled on the floor. Hiko was just leaning over him to check if he was really okay, when the young man suddenly shot upward in a blur, scoring a hit on Hiko's jaw.

"Heh, not bad," the swordsman chuckled nastily, backing away with his sword up. "But let's see how you can handle _this_!"

Yahiko watched the two combatants with interest, recording the moves in its memory on the off chance it might one day gain the mobility to re-create them.

Several blows later, Hiko laughed as he stood over the groaning Kenshin. "Try and top that, idiot."

"This one did not start the fight," Kenshin reminded him painfully.

"True. However, you _have_ convinced me to give you something I've been saving for a while."

Kenshin sat up, wincing, and watched curiously as Hiko took something out of a storage chest and then brought it over to him. "It's called a sakabatō."

"How interesting," Kenshin said politely as he inspected it. "This one always thought that swords were sharper on the curved edge, not the other way around."

"They are. Which is why this backwards moron of a weapon suits you perfectly, in my opinion."

"Very nice," Kenshin said dryly, trying to hand it back. In the process of doing so, he noticed something surprising. "Wait...why does it have this one's name on it?"

"'Cause it's yours."

Kenshin's mouth dropped open. "Pardon me?"

"What the heck am I gonna do with a useless sword like that? It's yours, kid. Someone dumped it with me a long time ago, asking me to give it to you. Seems like now's finally the right time."

Kenshin stared at the reversed blade with amazement and significantly heightened interest. "Who entrusted you with this?" he asked.

"A droid."

"Oro?"

Hiko rolled his eyes. "In any case, you've got an actual weapon now, which might, you know, come in handy while you're helping me rescue the little robot's princess.

"Oro!"

"Oi," Hiko said severely, "you and that master of yours cheated me out of a successor once, and you're not gonna do it again."

"But...this one..."

"Get up, we're going to start your training on Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū."

"Hiten...pardon me?"

0-0-0-0-0

Several old geezers were sitting in a conference room on the Death Star, gloating over the battle station's invincibleness.

Darth Enishi got annoyed and choked one of them.

Let's return to the pretty guys now, shall we?

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin was so busy steeling himself to break the news to his uncle that he was leaving the planet that he didn't even notice the smoke until he had parked the speeder and had been sitting there for a while.

"How long do you think it's going to take him to notice that his home's been blown up?" Hiko asked Yahiko conversationally.

Kenshin stared at him, startled, then out at the blackened remains of the farm. He didn't even notice vaulting out of the speeder or running towards the house; the first thing he was consciously aware of remembering was stopping dead at the sight of a burned corpse lying among the other debris.

Kenshin said nothing.

But his eyes turned very cold and hard.

And his hand tightened on the sword.

0-0-0-0-0

Kaoru surged to her feet and glared when a bunch of Edo troopers came crowding menacingly into her cell, followed by the huge black form of Darth Enishi. "Come to pay me a visit?" she said in a burst of false bravado. "How sweet of you, Enishi, but I'm afraid I'm not up for company at the moment."

"What did you do with those Death Star plans you stole?" Enishi demanded, getting right to the point.

"I ate them."

"You- Wait, what?"

"Put them in my mouth, chewed 'em, swallowed 'em," she lied confidently.

After a moment, Enishi regained his composure. "No you didn't."

"I sure did."

"They have to have been on a computer disc or a chip or a hologram. You can't chew on those!"

"Well...maybe I skipped the chewing part."

"Grr! Someone fetch an x-ray droid."

"I'm afraid that the Death Star plans have already passed through the entirety of my digestive system," the princess said primly.

Darth Enishi thought a moment. "Someone needs to go on sewage-combing duty." He eyed his troopers, who shrank back.

"W-We can have a droid do it," one of them suggested in a quivery voice.

"We could," the dark lord agreed. "But I really enjoy the idea of giving this assignment to someone I really don't like." A brilliant idea occurred to him, and he turned back to the princess. "I really don't like you," he remarked.

Her eyes widened in horror. "No, wait, I was lying! I never ate the Death Star plans." She paused. "My dog did."

0-0-0-0-0

"This one suggests that we look for a ship in Aeris Balamb," Kenshin suggested. The two of them (three, if you counted the droid) stood on a hill overlooking a certain scummy, villainous space port. "Mos Eisley is not very...law-abiding."

"You think I don't know that, after living here even longer than you have? There would be too many questions in Aeris Balamb. We'll blend in quite nicely with all the other fugitives in Mos Eisley."

Kenshin frowned. "Fugitives?"

"Edo is after the droid, which carries the blueprint of their new battle station," Hiko pointed out. "Which means they are probably after us now, too. Why else do you think your uncle's farm was attacked?"

"..."

Yahiko nervously edged away from the look on its new master's face.

The first sign of trouble was when they pulled into Mos Eisley and were stopped by an Edo trooper. "Where did that droid come from?" the trooper demanded.

Kenshin was opening his mouth and Yahiko was just leaning forward to provide two different answers, when Hiko cut in with a third. "None of your business."

The Edo trooper leveled his gun at Hiko.

Hiko punched him in the face.

"Drive on," Hiko directed. Kenshin did so, after a last wondering look at the trooper now sprawled on the ground.

"Nice shot," the droid said admiringly.

The cantina Hiko directed them to did not allow droids, so they had to leave Yahiko outside to throw a temper tantrum alone. Kenshin stared around in distaste as they made their way through the crowded, murky room. "Not the most reputable-looking establishment," he commented in a low voice.

As if to prove his point, a couple of thugs came marching up. "Hey, redhead," one of them growled menacingly, shoving Kenshin against the bar. "We don't like your type here."

"Yeah, gaijin. Get lost!" snarled the other.

"Erm...gentlemen, if you would be so kind as to-"

"Leave the kid alone," Hiko suggested, already sitting at the bar and reaching for the drink he had just ordered.

"You gonna make us?" the right-hand goon challenged, all eight eyestalks curling angrily.

Hiko shrugged, looking bored, and took a sip. The thugs cackled gleefully and turned back to their prey.

"Please don't make this one hurt you," Kenshin pleaded.

"Don't worry 'bout _that_, pretty boy!"

Hiko drank some more of his beverage and then pulled a face, ignoring the mayhem and howls of pain that were suddenly occurring just beside him. "This is NOT sake."

"Ah, please enjoy special Mos Eisley recipe!" the barkeeper offered nervously. "Very famous, good brew! On the house!" The creature squealed and ducked when Hiko flung the cup at his head.

"'Special Mos Eisley recipe' doesn't explain why it's PURPLE!" Hiko roared. Then he turned and snapped at his companion, "You finished yet?"

"Quite," Kenshin said coldly, sheathing the sakabatō and dusting off his hands. He side-stepped the downed thugs delicately enough, only to slip on some loose fangs that now littered the floor.

Hiko rolled his eyes. "Ever the idiot," he sighed, and went off in search of a suitable captain.

The man they finally found was a somewhat odd character, with his spiky black hair and almost totally white clothing that did not seem to match the cantina's seedy atmosphere...except for the Kanji rune for "evil" on his back. He leaned back cockily in his chair with one knee perched against the edge of the table, as a beautiful woman with long black hair sat demurely beside him. "Captain Sagara Sanosuke," he introduced himself shortly. "My partner here is Megumi. Also known as Megu-baka."

Megumi calmly hooked a foot around one of the two chair legs that were still in contact with the floor, sending Sanosuke crashing to the ground.

"Woman!" he howled up at her. "You better be running for your life before I get up, or else- urk!"

Megumi smiled charmingly at the potential customers across the table, her upper body perfectly still as she jabbed a heel into her partner's gut. "We are at your service, sirs."

Kenshin sweatdropped.

Coughing and glaring ferociously as he got to his feet, Sanosuke muttered, _"I'll get you later"_ into Megumi's ear before climbing ungracefully back into his righted chair. He blew out an annoyed breath. "So. Trip to Alderaan, huh? What kinda cargo we talkin' here?"

Hiko responded as if there had been no interruption. "Only passengers. Besides myself, there is only my idiot apprentice, a droid..." He suddenly leaned forward, glaring more menacingly than usual. "...and _no questions asked_."

The captain grinned. "What is it, some kinda local trouble?"

"Yes, you would know all about that, wouldn't you, Sano," Megumi smirked.

"What are you implying, woman?" he growled at her.

Calmly ignoring him (since she knew he knew perfectly well what she was talking about), she looked at Hiko and agreed, "No questions. Though if you're wanting us to steer clear of Edo, that will up the price."

"Perceptive female," Hiko grumbled.

"I was getting to that," Sanosuke huffed, then got down to the really interesting part of their transaction. "How does 10,000 sound to you?" The smirk on his face was meant to be goading, though Kenshin only frowned and Hiko's expression did not change.

"2,000 now. Fifteen when we reach Alderaan."

Sanosuke froze. His companion quite successfully resisted the temptation to shoot him urgent, meaningful looks. "Um," he finally said. "That's, uh, that's a deal."

Hiko rose, and Kenshin quickly followed his lead. "We have some business to take care of first, but we will meet you again within an hour."

"We're at docking bay 94," Megumi supplied when she realized that her companion was too busy drooling at the thought of their payment to answer. "The ship is called the _Sagara Falcon_."

"Fastest ship in the galaxy," Sanosuke broke in proudly.

"Great. Fine. See you then," Hiko cut him off, his voice showing a distinct lack of interest.

However, nothing could dampen Sanosuke's spirits at that moment. As soon as the two swordsmen were out of sight, he turned to Megumi and exclaimed gleefully, "17,000!"

"2,000," she corrected. "Who knows if we'll ever see the other fifteen."

"That's way more than we owe Jin-e!"

"_You_ owe Jin-e."

"I can use the rest to, like, totally re-outfit the _Falcon_!"

"You're not listening to me at all, are you."

"She is going to be so _sw33t_ when I'm done with her!"

Megumi sighed. "Since I'm likely to get more attention from the _Falcon_ than from you at the moment, I'm leaving to get her ready."

"She'll be, like, the fastest ship in the _universe_!" Sanosuke daydreamed on, not even noticing when Megumi left.

He did notice, however, when a slightly unsteady sword point suddenly appeared in front of his face, and an ugly, raspy voice began to cackle. "Well, well, well, if it ain't Sagara Sanosuke. I believe you owe my boss money, heh heh heh!"

Sanosuke glared. "Gohei, you slimeball. Get that sword out of my face."

"Then you'd better pay up quick," the aging thug taunted, moving the sword tip closer with the intent of poking at the captain's throat.

Sanosuke punched the blade away with one hand and simultaneously used the other to deliver an upward thrust at Gohei's jaw, knocking him back a few steps. It wasn't hard, since the old guy, despite his size, was long past his prime.

"You'll pay for that," Gohei snarled, and made to attack him, but Sanosuke caught the blade between his hands and kicked his assailant in a nasty place.

"Jin-e's got no class, hiring decrepit goons like you," he sighed, tossing the sword aside and strolling past the said goon, who was rolling around on the floor in pain.

Sanosuke hurried to the docking bay, meaning to sneak off before Jin-e could find him, but he stopped short the moment he set foot in the room.

Megumi stood planted firmly on the ship's entrance ramp, arms crossed and eyes blazing as she faced down Jin-e himself, who was flanked by more minions. "I _told_ you already, he's not here," she was growling. Then she caught sight of Sanosuke behind the others.

Jin-e, picking up on the little flicker of surprise on her face, immediately turned and grinned his nasty grin. "Well, now he is," he chuckled. "Good to see you again, old friend."

"I'm no friend of Shinsengumi rejects," Sanosuke growled. Then he ran a hand through his hair and sauntered toward them, trying to look casual. "Look, Jin-e, I've got your money, so you can quit crowding my ship now, eh?"

"I'll leave when _I_ have the money, not you," Jin-e said meaningfully.

Sanosuke gritted his teeth. "The money's not in my _pocket_, for cryin' out loud. If you just wait 'til I get back from this next job-"

"Not good enough, Sagara," Jin-e cut in. "Now, here's the deal. It will take about four or five minutes for your girlfriend here to suffocate to death when I use my interesting little technique on her. The money is going to be in my hand before that time, or-"

"Extra," Megumi cut in. "You'll get a 15% bonus for the wait."

Jin-e gave her a calculating look. "Will I, now. Just what kind of a job is this, anyway?"

"The hush-hush kind of job," she said at once, going into flirtation mode. Stepping up to him with a seductive smile, she absently traced around his shoulders with one finger as she said beguilingly, "Now, sir, don't you think a mission that would pay so much would have a bit of secrecy about it?"

He grabbed her by the throat, effectively cutting off that approach; Sanosuke yelled and surged forward, only to be grabbed by five thugs.

"I quite agree," Jin-e whispered hotly into Megumi's disgusted, frightened face. "So no questions asked - for now. But your promises had better come through, because I do so hate women who lie." Then he gently released her and began to walk away...only Megumi was still desperately gasping for air, clutching at her throat and turning desperate eyes to Sanosuke.

"Jin-e! Let her go!" Sanosuke shouted at him, tugging furiously but unsuccessfully against the arms that held him back.

Jin-e paused, then turned very leisurely toward the captain. "Hm? Oh, silly me. I almost forgot." He raised a hand, and Megumi suddenly collapsed to her knees, coughing violently. Sanosuke ran to her as Jin-e and his people left the docking bay.

"Megumi! Oi, Megumi!"

"Fine," she rasped. "'M fine..." She swallowed and glared up at him, still interrupted by coughs. "But I'm - gonna kill you, Sagara, - before I let you - borrow money - ever again!"

0-0-0-0-0

Kaoru was dragged up to a viewing deck on the Death Star, and as soon as she saw Alderaan floating peacefully in the black ocean of space, she got a really, really bad feeling.

"Hello, princess," said a random evil geezer. "And how are you enjoying your stay?"

"It's lovely, except the food sucks. Oh, and so does the hospitality, and the housekeeping, and-"

"Where is the rebel base, princess?" the Evil Geezer asked calmly.

"What base?"

Evil Geezer struck her across the face. "Don't play dumb, princess. We know perfectly well that you are a Meiji spy. I suggest you answer our questions - that is, if you don't wish to see your home planet become reduced to a cloud of dust."

For a moment Kaoru felt like she couldn't breathe. Then her eyes flicked to Darth Enishi, who was skulking in the background.

"Told you you'd rather dig through poop," he said smugly.

"Oh, but you're _so_ much better suited for the job," she snapped back automatically, though her mind was racing.

"We are waiting, princess," Evil Geezer demanded with cold impatience.

Kaoru stared at him a minute before dropping her head and whispering, "Dantooine. They're...they're on Dantooine."

With a truly villainous grin, Evil Geezer turned to give the order to fire.

"What? You can't!" Kaoru burst out.

"What were you expecting?" Evil Geezer said scornfully. "That we'd actually keep our word?"

Kaoru surged forward as if she could reach out to protect her planet, but it was too late.

0-0-0-0-0

Our Ragtag Band of Heroes had a close call when imperial troopers showed up at the last minute, then another close call when they were immediately pursued by Edo cruisers as soon as they cleared the atmosphere. Luckily, Sanosuke's boasting had not been idle, and the _Falcon_ soared free once it entered lightspeed.

Hiko led Kenshin to the largest room on the ship (which wasn't saying much), then turned to the curious young man. "Get out your sword, my idiot apprentice. Time for some Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu practice."

Kenshin frowned at the repeated epithet, but did not protest, since Hiko was supposed to be his teacher now. He slowly drew out his new sword from its sheath, standing there quietly for a moment to absorb the feel of the heavy steel weapon in his hands, so much more powerful than his light shinai. He did not relish the sensation...it was awakening too many bad memories.

And yet...this blade. Kenshin eyed the reversed edge uncertainly. Would it be possible for him to learn to wield this weapon properly, to be able to stand and fight without extinguishing any more life?

WHACK

"Ow! What was that for, Shishou?"

"You sit there admiring your sword at the start of a battle, you're gonna lose something important. Like your head."

They went at it for a while, watched by an interested Yahiko, a bored Megumi, and an interested-but-pretending-to-be-bored Sanosuke.

"Blindfold!" Yahiko called out eagerly at one point.

Hiko grinned. "Excellent idea." He paused to find a helmet, which he settled over Kenshin's head, blast shield down. "Now, attack me."

Kenshin was still for a minute, then charged.

THUNK

Hiko tapped his foot impatiently as he watched his apprentice groaning on the floor. "Get up already and attack me again!"

"Hai..."

Later, Kenshin was quite tired and somewhat battered when Megumi came running in from the cockpit. "You two had better quit that and get in here - we've got a problem."

0-0-0-0-0

Evil Geezer stormed into the conference room. "She lied! The princess lied to us!"

Darth Enishi shrugged. "Not surprised. Neesan would have done the same."

Evil Geezer stamped his foot. "Grr! I hate that girl now!"

"I thought you already hated her."

"I mean, I _really_ hate her now!"

"So you..._didn't_ really hate her before?"

"Stop confusing me! I just _hate_ her, okay? I will have her terminated immediately!"

"Fine, whatever."

0-0-0-0-0

Megumi hurried into the cockpit, with Kenshin, Hiko, and Yahiko right on her heels. "Look," she said, gesturing out at the view of space. "We've come out of hyperspace, and there's nothing here but an asteroid field."

"The planet friggin' disappeared!" Sanosuke yelled from the pilot's seat.

"Perhaps our location is wrong," Kenshin suggested.

"Check the coordinates yourself!" Sanosuke snapped at him. "We're at _Alderaan_, only Alderaan's not _here_!"

"Confirmed coordinates for the planet Alderaan," Yahiko spoke up from one of the control panels. "We should be able to see it from here, yet neither my sensors nor the _Sagara Falcon_'s are picking it up."

"Someone must have blown up the planet," Hiko mused. "How inconvenient."

"How terrible!" Kenshin gasped, and Megumi's hands flew up to her mouth in horror.

"No one can blow up a planet!" Sanosuke insisted. "You'd have to have a cannon the size of...the size of..."

"The size of that thing?" Yahiko supplied, pointing to the oddly mechanical-looking moon that had appeared in their viewport.

"Yeah," Sanosuke said weakly. "Like that thing. Megumi, turn the ship around."

"I...I can't," Megumi said in surprise, stabbing at unresponsive controls.

Kenshin frowned up at the roof, wondering why the ship had begun to shake.

"Tractor beam," Hiko realized.

Sanosuke cursed, but nothing he or Megumi did was changing the ship's course. "Shut it down," he finally ordered. "And someone come up with a Plan B."

0-0-0-0-0

Darth Enishi stalked up to the captured ship, unable to believe the officer's report that it was empty. "Send a scanning crew onboard," he ordered. "I feel angrier than usual today..._something_ on that ship is making me mad."

"Yes, sir!" the minion agreed, and the dark lord stalked off again.

After knocking out the scanning crew and stealing their uniforms, the crew of the _Sagara Falcon_ sneaked out into the open.

"How come you're not wearing one of these stupid uniforms, old man?" Sanosuke complained to Hiko under his breath.

"Because _I_ have magic Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu powers, and _you_ don't," Hiko said airily, sweeping past a row of oblivious Edo troopers. The group blasted their way into the nearest control room and locked the door, then turned to the bank of instruments lining the walls.

"Yahiko, please log into the system and find the power controls for the tractor beam," Kenshin requested. "Once we get that disabled, we'll be able to escape."

"No problem," the droid agreed, and moved forward for its chance to show off. "Looks like there are seven terminals where we can shut off the power. We only need to sabotage one of them in order to- there she is!"

The humans gave him confused looks.

"The princess!" Yahiko insisted. "I found her!"

"Kaoru-hime? She's here?" Kenshin exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah! And she's...urk..."

"She's what? What?" Kenshin insisted.

The droid turned to Kenshin, eyes blinking in distress. "She's scheduled to be terminated."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed, and he laid a hand on his sword-hilt.

Hiko shrugged. "What a shame. Ah well, we'll let Meiji know about it once we've gotten off this-"

"I'm going after her, Shishou."

Hiko turned to his apprentice in annoyance. "What are you babbling about now, idiot?"

"Kaoru-hime," Kenshin said quietly, his stance resolute. "This one will not leave her here to die."

"_We_ may be the ones dying if we go gallivanting off on side-quests," Hiko warned him.

"I'm sorry, Shishou," Kenshin said calmly. "This is something that must be done."

"Well, I'm coming with you," Megumi spoke up. "It's nice to see a man do the chivalrous thing, for once."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sanosuke demanded.

"Nothing," Megumi replied lightly, tossing her hair. "Just that you're a self-centered boor. I bet you couldn't rescue a princess even if you tried."

"I'll show _you_ who can't rescue a princess, Megu-baka!"

Ignoring the ensuing scuffle, Kenshin bowed to his master. "This one will not slow you down, Shishou. Please wait for us at the ship once the tractor beam has been disabled."

Hiko rolled his eyes.

"Yahiko," Kenshin called on his way out. "Stay here and keep alert for our reports. We might need your help."

"I can't come with you?" the droid complained, but subsided at its master's warning look. "Fine." There was an awkward pause, then the droid burst out, "Be safe, sir."

Kenshin nodded and left. He did not notice Hiko smiling a little after him before the master warrior headed off on his own mission.

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: Aeris is a character from the video game Final Fantasy VII, and Balamb is a sort of city in FF8. The two or three Tattooine cities that are named in the movie aren't very helpful, since I doubt either a rural settlement or a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" would have high-tech scientific research centers. Therefore, I made up a non-existent city for the purpose.

Gaijin means foreigner; they're referring to Kenshin's red hair and blue eyes, which Watsuki-sensei NEVER EXPLAINS the origin of, considering that Kenshin is supposedly Japanese. Of course, since this is the Star Wars universe, such a prejudice no longer makes sense, but whatever. Bullies don't need a real reason to pick on someone. Or to attempt to pick on someone, anyway. :p

Megu-baka is a play on words; it rhymes somewhat with "Chewbacca," but I'm sure you all know what baka means in Japanese.

Neesan is short for Oneesan, which means "older sister." "Hime" means "princess," so using it as an honorific would be like calling her "Princess Kaoru."

Btw, Jin-e is still humanoid. He took on Jabba's role, not his looks.


	2. Death Star Adventures

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode II - Death Star Adventures** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

Kenshin and Sanosuke were rather proud of themselves. They and Megumi had made their way to the detention block without detection - until the officer in charge caught sight of an odd little detail.

"You two," he demanded, frowning, "your hair length is _way_ past regulation standards. Give me your identification numbers."

Kenshin and Megumi exchanged uneasy glances, though all they could see of each other were the bulky trooper masks they had stolen. And, of course, the lengths of red and black hair, respectively, that hung down well below their helmets.

"Er...this one is trooper number 2-4-...6-...8-1?" Kenshin offered tentatively.

The officer's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "That is not a valid I.D. Remove your helmets at once!"

"Uh..." Kenshin was saved from having to reply when Sanosuke suddenly lunged forward and punched the officer in the nose. Megumi immediately drew her blaster and began shooting at the cameras, while Kenshin drew his sakabatō to deal with the troopers who came running to investigate the disturbance.

"Great plan, shorty," Sanosuke said sarcastically when all the men were down. "Get back there and find your blasted princess!" Kenshin nodded and moved away. Yanking off his helmet, Sanosuke strode over to the beeping communicator and attempted to smooth things over. "Uh...uh, everything's under control, situation normal."

_"What happened?"_ demanded the officer on the other end.

"Ah, hit a slight weapons malfunction, but, uh, everything's perfectly all right now; we're fine, we're all fine here now, thank you...how are you?" Sanosuke winced at the slip.

_"Who is this? What's your operating number?"_

Megumi slammed her blaster into the microphone before Sanosuke could answer. "Just in case you came up with anything even stupider to say," she commented.

"What was that, woman?"

Meanwhile, Kenshin had found the princess's cell and was hurrying inside. She sat up quickly when he entered.

"Nice ponytail," she quipped nervously. "Get close enough and I'll choke you with it, you stupid thug."

"Oro?" Kenshin exclaimed in surprise. Then, realizing that the princess thought he was an Edo trooper, he quickly pulled the helmet off. "Kaoru-hime, my name is Himura Kenshin. We've come here to rescue you."

She frowned. "You're who?"

"Himura Kenshin. Please hurry, Princess. More troopers will be here any minute."

0-0-0-0-0

Darth Enishi marched into the conference room. "I am randomly going to check on the tractor beam power centers," he announced to Evil Geezer.

"Okay," Evil Geezer said warily. "Have fun."

Darth Enishi whirled and marched back out.

0-0-0-0-0

"He's just a droid, he can't rescue anyone," Yahiko was complaining to itself. "Yeah, let's just leave the useless droid in the control room while _we_ hog all the cool adventures-"

An insistent tapping suddenly came from the door. _"Open up in there!"_ a voice demanded from outside.

The YA-10 swore and looked around for a place to hide.

0-0-0-0-0

Reasoning that an open cell door was an open cell door, Kaoru quickly hurried out of it, followed by her strange little rescuer. She was immediately bowled over by some idiot whose haircut resembled a rooster's. "Watch where you're going, bird-head!" she shouted.

"Watch yourself, Your Highness!" he snapped back. "Kenshin, we're cut off. We've got to find another exit!"

"It's a detention block, there _is_ no other exit," Kaoru pointed out as Kenshin looked around frantically. "Great rescue mission you boys have planned."

"Kaoru-hime, get down!" Kenshin cried, pushing the princess behind him as troopers came swarming into the detention block.

"We can't hold them off forever!" Megumi shouted over the noise of laser fire, shooting for all she was worth.

Kaoru rolled her eyes, grabbed the weird backwards sword out of the redhead's hands, and used the hilt to smash out the cover of a nearby garbage chute. "Get in," she ordered, and dived in without waiting for the acknowledgment of the others.

"Are you crazy?" Sanosuke shouted after her, then was horrified to see his partner jumping into the hole. "Megumi! What the heck are you doing?"

"It's our only choice, Sano!" Kenshin called before following her.

Sanosuke cursed, then dove in to join the party.

"Great plan," he complained a minute later. "Wonderful haven we've found here."

"At least your hair's short," Megumi grumbled, dragging her own tresses out of the filthy water.

Kenshin courteously pulled his own hair-tie free and handed it to her before looking around. "The exit is over there, but I assume it's locked."

"It is," Kaoru said, glumly knocking the sakabatō's hilt against it. "Scrap metal doesn't usually need to open doors. Here's your sword, by the way."

"Thank you," he said, accepting it back from her.

"What kind of weapon is that, anyway? Can you even kill people with it?"

"No, Princess," he explained. "It is a sakabatō, which suits this one better than a normal sword would. I have vowed never to take human life again."

"That's all well and good," Megumi put in before Kaoru could ask about the _'again,'_ "but we need to find a way out of here before-" The rest of her sentence was drowned out by an echoing roaring noise.

"Before _that_ happens," Sanosuke said tensely.

For a moment the four of them looked around nervously, until Kenshin suddenly jumped. "There is something alive in the water," he realized.

Kaoru suddenly squealed and clawed her way to the top of a pile of garbage. "Keep it away from me! Keep it AWAY from me!"

"This one will not let anything hurt you, Prin-" Kenshin started to assure her, then was suddenly yanked under the water.

"Kenshin!" Sanosuke shouted, surging forward.

"Find him!" Megumi urged.

"What do you think I'm _trying_ to do?" Sanosuke shot back, pawing frantically at the place where his companion had disappeared. "Kenshin!" After a minute he went still, and stared back at the two women, their horrified expressions reflecting his own.

"He's not...?" Kaoru whispered.

Sanosuke suddenly ducked back from a shower of water as Kenshin resurfaced, gagging and flailing desperately with his sword. Some hideous, serpent-like creature was wrapped tightly around his body, though he had managed to get a hand between it and his throat. "Head," he managed to choke out. "Its head!"

Sanosuke landed a swift punch right in one of the creature's eyeballs, so that it howled and loosened its grip; Kaoru stabbed at it with a metal pole she had found, and Kenshin shoved it away from him as Sanosuke helped him to his feet.

"Get it before it comes back," Megumi cried, but Sanosuke had lost sight of the thing.

"I think...it's gone," Kenshin gasped out, rubbing at his throat.

An ominous groaning sound suddenly rumbled through the chamber.

"What was that?" Kaoru demanded fearfully. "Kenshin, what was that?"

He had no answer, until the explanation became obvious to them all.

"The walls are closing in!" Megumi shouted.

"They plan to crush us!" Kaoru realized, horrified. The four of them sprang into action, Sanosuke and Kenshin bracing themselves against opposite ends of the chamber, as the women rushed to prop the walls apart with whatever poles they could find.

"Not working," Sanosuke grunted.

"Try anyway," Megumi snapped back.

"Isn't there anyone else who could help us?" Kaoru wondered hopelessly, and Kenshin's eyes snapped open wide.

"Yahiko!" He grabbed the forgotten communicator from his belt and called into it, "Yahiko! Yahiko, please respond! Yahiko!" There was no answer.

0-0-0-0-0

Meanwhile, Yahiko was also experiencing a tense moment. He stared back at the surprised Edo troopers who had found him with the most innocent expression he could muster up. Since Yahiko was a droid, however, its expressions were all identical, rendering the effort rather pointless.

"Um...hey, thanks guys. It sure was terrible to be locked in this closet by a bunch of crazy intruders, heh. They went to the prison level, by the way. In case you were wondering."

The troopers stared at him.

"So...you can, you know, go up to the prison level. And leave me, you know, alone."

The officer turned to the other soldiers. "All right men, you heard what it said! To the prison level, on the double!"

"Yes, sir!"

Yahiko made a whirring sound of relief, picked up the communicator, and clanked out of the room in search of a safer place. It made its way down to where the _Sagara Falcon_ was being kept, but there was no one waiting for it.

"Wonder what happened to them," it wondered. "Wouldn't be surprised if those idiots were captured; better check." Plugging into the system, the YA-10 searched recent prisoner lists, but was disappointed to find nothing of interest. "Oh well. At least it means they haven't been caught...but where could they be?"

Yahiko raised a hand to its forehead in a gesture of frustration it had picked up from observing humans, and heard a clanking sound of plastic on metal. It brought its hand down in puzzlement to find that it was still holding the communicator. "Oh! Forgot I still had this. Hope they weren't trying to reach me." Yahiko turned the communicator back on and was startled by a burst of staticky noise.

_"Yahiko! Yahiko, come in! _Please come in_!"_

Oops. "Kenshin? I mean, Master?"

_"Yahiko! Oh, thank goodness! Quickly, shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!"_

"Huh? What in the world does that have to do with-"

_"SHUT THEM DOWN __**NOW**__!"_

The droid had never heard Kenshin yell like this before. "Fine, fine." Then a thought occurred to its artificial brain. Could its companions somehow have ended up in a garbage masher? Oh dear. Humans would most certainly break if placed in a situation like that. Swift action was needed.

"Shut down command, shut down command...there!" Yahiko punched in the code, then turned anxiously back to the communicator. "Master? Master, are you all right?"

There was a moment of eerie silence, and then a sudden burst of screams. Yahiko experienced an extremely odd sensation in its throat area, as if a glob of oil had suddenly leaked into a compartment that was not designed for it. "I...I've killed them. I killed my master and the princess and two other humans. Oh #$&. No wonder they didn't want a droid along. And why do my visual sensors feel like they're short-circuiting?"

Kenshin's voice suddenly came through coherently, its tone strangely joyful. _"We're all right, we're all right! Thank you so much, Yahiko; you are a most wonderful droid! Now, please open pressure maintenance hatch number...what's the number, Sano?...3263827!"_

0-0-0-0-0

"Idiot apprentice," Hiko muttered, staring at the big glowing column in front of him. "Sending me to do the important work while they go off to play knights in shining armor...where's the 'off' switch for this thing, anyway?" He stabbed at random buttons until the light in the column suddenly died, making a reproachful sound as it did so. "Oh, shut up, you were annoying us anyway," he told it, then turned to leave.

0-0-0-0-0

After their little adventure, it was a relief for the rescuers to ditch the now-filthy trooper uniforms and get back into their regular clothes. They couldn't help joking giddily from sheer relief at being alive.

"I think that topped any of Enishi's death threats," Kaoru laughed.

"Death threats?" Kenshin repeated, startled.

"She's been a prisoner, silly," Megumi said, giving his shoulder a shove. "I wouldn't be surprised if she went through torture, too."

Kenshin whirled and stared at Kaoru, who smiled a little self-consciously. "Nothing happened," she assured him. "The worst part was when we got into an argument about poop."

"..."

Kaoru blushed as everyone stared at her. "I mean, what happened was, it's like-"

"Forget it, I'm not touchin' that," Sanosuke muttered as he turned away, "you crazy, sewage-obsessed-" Since he was looking for possible enemies coming from the opposite direction, he didn't see Kaoru's fist coming.

"You take that back, bird-head!"

"Can you blame me, Princess Garbage Lover?" he shouted back, then made a sound like "oof" when Megumi kicked him. "What was that for, Megu-baka?"

"Nothing," she said jealously, her face burning.

"Ah," Kenshin realized. "Please be careful whom you insult, Sano. I believe Megumi-dono has priority claim, that she does."

"You shut up!" Megumi gasped, shoving him roughly aside so she could march ahead of the group.

"You people are weird," Kaoru muttered.

Megumi, who had already passed around the corner, suddenly shrieked and came hurtling back. "Run!" she shouted, the command punctuated by laser fire suddenly blasting from the corridor behind her.

"Split up!" Sanosuke yelled as Edo troopers came pouring into view. Grabbing Megumi's wrist, the two of them hurried off in one direction as Kenshin and Kaoru rushed in another.

"Still after us," Kaoru panted, not daring to glance behind them, but painfully aware of the soldiers' boots clacking against the floor.

"That door," Kenshin noticed, and slung her into it.

"Dead end!" Kaoru shouted at him, but too late; he had already joined her and brought his fist down on the controls to shut the door.

Kaoru sighed and turned to the control panel. "No lock," she realized.

At the sound of activity just behind the door, Kenshin slammed the sakabatō's hilt into the lock mechanisms. "That's not going to last for long," Kaoru pointed out.

Knowing she was right, Kenshin glanced around hastily, searching for a way to break the heavy lock on the door across from them. "I'm going to try something," he told the princess, and was surprised when she suddenly snatched the neglected shinai from his back.

"Fine. I'll hold them off." She poised herself facing the door, ready just in time for the Edo troopers to burst through.

Kenshin's mouth was already open in horrified warning when the princess, with a lusty yell, flung herself into action. Kenshin's open mouth stayed open, this time in shock, as he watched her down the first two troopers with graceful efficiency.

"What?" she said mischievously, glancing behind her. "You think females can't pick up a few fighting moves as well?"

"This one is impressed," he admitted. Then he turned back to the task at hand, trusting her to handle the new troopers who were already rushing up. "Concentrate," he told himself, "focus..." He could practically feel the power gathering in his sword. "Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu: DORYUUSEN!"

Startled at the explosive sound of what came next, Kaoru whirled around to see that the door had been stricken completely off its hinges, and was dangling from the now-pointless lock.

Kenshin blew out a breath and turned to her with a relieved smile as he sheathed his sword. "Shishou taught me that. It's the first time that move has been attempted by this one outside practice."

"You mean you didn't know it would work?"

"This one has only recently become a student of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu."

"Okay, great, but we have to go." Glancing over her shoulder at the approaching wave of new Edo troopers, Kaoru pushed Kenshin through the door, and the two of them ran on.

0-0-0-0-0

Meanwhile, Hiko had met someone interesting. "Hi," he said warily.

Darth Enishi cocked his head. "Hi."

Pause.

"You seem familiar."

"Can't recall ever seeing you in my life."

"Whatever. Hey, are you any good at fighting?"

Hiko shrugged. "I'm only the greatest swordsman in the galaxy. Why?"

"Oh, nothing much, I just hate fighting weaklings, that's all."

Hiko grinned. "Hiko Seijūrō is no weakling."

"Great. Have at you!"

With that, the two warriors rushed at each other, weapons poised to attack.

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin, Kaoru, Sanosuke, and Megumi met up again just outside the docking bay where the _Sagara Falcon_ waited. After hasty "Glad you're all right"s, they turned to consider how they were going to get to the ship with a whole gang of Edo troopers in the way.

"We need a distraction," Kaoru suggested.

"Perhaps Sano and this one could rush them while you ladies board the ship."

"Or Megumi could streak," Sano said thoughtfully. "_That'd_ get their attention." Megumi calmly sent him flying into the wall.

"This isn't helping," Kaoru sighed.

"Look," Kenshin said sharply. They gathered together again to watch in puzzlement as all the troopers suddenly ran off.

"What the heck?" Sanosuke muttered.

On the other side of the docking bay, Yahiko seized its chance and toddled out toward the ship. It was quite glad to see Kenshin and the others running out almost at the same time - until Kenshin suddenly came to a stop, staring at something.

It soon became quite clear what had caught the attention of the troopers. Darth Enishi and Hiko came into view, slashing at each other.

"Shishou?" Kenshin murmured in surprise.

As if able to hear him even all the way across the room, Hiko glanced over at the little group. Then he grinned, lowered his sword, and reached for a little device on his wrist.

"Gotcha!" Darth Enishi cried gleefully, and swung his sword.

Hiko promptly vanished.

"SHISHOU!" Kenshin screamed. The Edo troopers whirled to face them.

"Get on the ship, now!" Sanosuke ordered as the troopers opened fire.

Kenshin, not even hearing him, took a few steps forward, raising the sakabatō, but Kaoru grabbed his arm and dragged back on it as hard as she could. "Kenshin, let's _go_!" she cried. "There's nothing we can do!"

Kenshin glanced back wildly, and something about her anxious face seemed to clear his head. He turned and raced back with her into the ship, his sword flashing to protect her from laser shots headed their way.

"Please please please please please please please," Sanosuke chanted under his breath as he jabbed at the controls. The _Falcon_ hummed to life, climbed up into the air, and headed almost gladly for the freedom of space. "YES!" Sanosuke shouted triumphantly.

"So Hiko-san managed to take care of the tractor beam first," Megumi laughed in relief.

Elsewhere, however, not everyone was in such high spirits. Kaoru's heart ached as she looked at Kenshin, slumped dejectedly against the wall. Looking around, she spotted a blanket and shook her head as she brought it over to drape across his shoulders. "I know it doesn't help," she said apologetically. "But...um..."

"Thank you, Kaoru-hime," he whispered. She placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, and smiled sadly when he reached up to lay his hand over hers.

The sweet moment did not last long, however. Sanosuke came hurrying in. "Kenshin, there's- Aw, geez. Look, Kenshin, sorry about this, but we're not in the clear yet."

Kenshin's eyes steeled, and he rose to follow Sanosuke without a word. They split up into separate gunning stations, as Megumi called directions over the commlink and Kaoru twisted her hands together nervously.

"Don't worry," Yahiko told her, wishing it could get its monotone to sound more comforting. "Kenshin's, like, the best fighter ever, after Master Hiko. He'll get us out of this."

"I hope so," Kaoru muttered, and was quite glad when he (and Sano) did.

Sanosuke wasn't quite so happy. "You let 'em escape!" he fumed as he and Kenshin climbed back down from the gunning stations.

"Their ships are irreparable," Kenshin returned calmly. "They will not be bothering us again anytime soon."

Sanosuke, loath to admit that it took more skill to damage a TIE fighter in such a way as to leave the pilot intact than to simply blow the thing up, finally just shook his head. "You're too nice, Kenshin. _Way_ too nice."

As he sauntered proudly back into the cockpit, Megumi actually turned to smile at him, and said as if to a young child, "That's my boy!"

"Didja see that?" he answered happily, "All those sentry ships, kablooey!"

"Yes, I _saw_ that, Sano-wano," Megumi teased in a baby-talk voice. "I'm so _proud_ of my precious little Sano-wano!"

"Ah, shut up," he muttered, flapping a hand at her, but Megumi caught sight of the reddened face and silly grin before he turned his head away.

0-0-0-0-0

Back on the Death Star, two certain villains calmly watched the _Sagara Falcon_ fly away.

"Are you sure the homing beacon is on their ship?" Evil Geezer asked distrustfully.

"Of course it is. I'm never wrong," Darth Enishi asserted.

0-0-0-0-0

At the rebel base on Yavin 4, the information stored in Yahiko's memory was analyzed, and the rebel warriors were assembled for a briefing before the biggest battle in the history of the Bakumatsu. Even as they spoke, the Death Star was approaching closer and closer to their base...

"Wow." Kaoru shook her head in amazement as she sat next to Kenshin. "Hard to imagine that such an enormous menace could be taken out because of such a small weakness."

"Such is the case oftener than one would expect," Kenshin remarked. He turned to look at Sanosuke. "Sano, will you stay to help in the battle?"

"Are you kidding?" Sanosuke scoffed, already counting his reward money. "This ain't my fight, man. If you morons wanna go up against the freaking _Death Star_, that's not my problem; I got other things to do, you know."

"Yeah," Megumi said darkly from behind him. "Like kiss up to an insane gangster hypnotist."

Sanosuke twisted around to glare at her. "What's your problem, woman? You want the slug off our backs, don't you?"

"Yeah. Of course I do," she shot back with a note of heavy sarcasm that Sanosuke did not understand. "I'd _love_ to be rid of Jin-e, even at the price of the entire Meiji rebellion; no problems there, Captain Sagara." With that, she hopped out of her seat and stormed off.

Sanosuke shook his head in frustration. "Women," he commented knowingly to Kenshin. "Who gets 'em." If he was expecting agreement, however, he was disappointed. Kenshin's reproachful, pitying look only confused him even more.

0-0-0-0-0

The atmosphere was both excited and tense as the Meiji warriors readied their weapons, suited up, and settled into the cockpits of their vehicles.

"Kenshin," Kaoru said suddenly, catching hold of his sleeve as he was climbing up into his X-wing fighter.

He looked down at her in surprise. "Kaoru-hime?"

"Um," she said awkwardly. "Just...be careful, okay?" She self-consciously raised a hand to her madly blushing face.

Kenshin smiled. "Thank you, Kaoru-hime. This one will be thinking of you."

Which only made her face burn all the redder.

"Don't worry, Princess," Kenshin's assigned YA-10 unit chirped. "I'll look after him for ya."

Kaoru scrubbed at her face and smiled up at the droid. "Thanks, Yahiko. You be careful too, okay?"

Yahiko blinked the light in one of its eyes in a droid-wink.

0-0-0-0-0

The Meiji warriors looked glorious and noble and hopelessly outnumbered as they soared out to confront the enemy battle station and its legion of fighters. Laser fire erupted between the darting little ships, as the rebels strove to make their way closer and closer to the battle station.

Kenshin found himself in an unsavory predicament. Picking off lone fighters from the escaping _Sagara Falcon_ had been one thing, but now he was part of an invasion team, and he could no longer resort to disabling enemy fighters without killing their pilots. Searching desperately for some way he could be of use without violating his vow, he suddenly took off and began firing at the defense towers.

_"Red 5, what are you doing?"_ his team leader shouted at him.

"There is no need to hold back against a machine," Kenshin answered cryptically, and set about methodically eliminating the cannons on the Death Star's surface that were firing at the rebels.

_"Don't worry about him,"_ Kaoru's voice came over the commlinks. _"What he's doing is helpful, so just concentrate on your mission."_

Kenshin's focus on his task did not waver, but he could not help noticing every death-scream from the commlink, every indication that another one of his comrades had just died.

_"Master,"_ Yahiko inquired at one point. _"Is this really all right? Our team isn't having much luck, I think we really need you. Admit it, you're the only one with the skills to exploit the Death Star's weak spot."_

"The commanders would not have planned this attack if there was no hope of its success," Kenshin said stubbornly.

_"Maybe so...but I still think there's something else you could be- AAAGGHH!"_

"Yahiko!" Kenshin shouted, but the line to his droid had gone dead. After taking a moment to regain his composure, he reported, "My droid's been taken out." Then he added in a whisper, "Yahiko..."

_"He...he'll be all right, Kenshin,"_ Kaoru's voice said shakily. _"Just make sure you bring his shell back, okay? That's the only way we can fix him. Make _sure_ you come back, okay?"_

Kenshin nodded. "Hai."

Another of the dwindling lights on his screen suddenly blinked out, its disappearance echoed by another staticky scream.

_"Red leader's been taken out!"_ the last of Kenshin's team members shouted. _"He had almost done it, too. All right, I'm going in! Red 5, cover m-"_ His voice was suddenly cut off, never to be heard again, and a cold chill ran down Kenshin's spine.

"I'm the last one left," he realized.

_"K-Kenshin,"_ Kaoru's voice pleaded, but she did not continue.

_"Red 5!"_ a man's brusquer voice cut in. _"We are NEVER going to get another chance at this, do you hear me? You are _ordered_ to descend and complete the mission, or die in the attempt."_

_"Kenshin!"_ Kaoru's voice was swimming with tears, and Kenshin realized that she was torn between her desire for his safety and her desperation to...to live.

Kaoru-hime's life was at stake.

"This is Red 5," came his steely voice. "I'm going in." Completely alone, he dove into the thick of the continuing laser fire, aiming for the closest docking bay to the target. It was quite difficult, since all local enemy fire was concentrated on him, the only target left.

Kenshin was startled to receive a chilling transmission from the most persistent of his pursuers.

_"You're Himura Kenshin, aren't you? I know it, I can sense you! I'm coming for you, Himura!"_ a familiar voice screamed crazily.

"D-Darth Enishi?" Kenshin stammered. This was quite a problem. Temporarily abandoning the mission objective, Kenshin worked hard to stay alive, twisting and turning wildly to avoid the dark lord's deadly accurate fire. What complicated matters was the little army of smaller fighters that flanked him, all firing at Kenshin as well.

"This one might be in trouble," Kenshin murmured, feeling sweat pouring down his face but unable to spare a hand to wipe it away. Of course that was the least of his worries.

KABOOM

_"Nooooo!"_ Darth Enishi's rapidly fading voice howled as he was blown out into space, thrown off course from the force of his companions exploding. _"I'll get you, Kenshin, if it's the last thing I dooo!"_

Kenshin glanced sharply down at his monitor to find that the fighters were being picked off one by one. A transmission came in.

_"I've got this, Kenshin! Now hurry and get your butt back where it's needed!"_

"Sano!" Kenshin exclaimed gladly. Then, more urgently, "Please stop killing them!"

_"Ah, shut up. The sooner you get done, the sooner we can stop."_

Wincing, Kenshin swerved back to his original course, aiming again for the sector where he needed to land his fighter. Wasting no time on amazement that he had succeeded, he tore off the harness and helmet, scrambled out of the cockpit, and jumped out, his feet touching the floor of the Death Star once again.

"Third door on the left," he muttered to himself, racing into the corridor with his sword out. Deflecting laser fire from the Edo soldiers seemed easier than ever; it was as if his body had taken control, instinctively performing all the moves he needed to survive, to push forward, to achieve his goal.

Kenshin burst into the target room. In less than a second he was at the far wall, facing the battle station's self-detonation device. He would have just enough time between triggering the mechanism and the ensuing explosion to be able to get back to his X-wing and fly to safety. Kenshin raised his sword.

And froze.

_'How many people?'_ his mind whispered treacherously. _'How many people are on this station? Thousands? A million? They will all die. And you will be their murderer. You're nothing but a hitokiri; you always have been, and you always will be.'_ The sakabatō shook in Kenshin's hands.

Then another thought occurred to him. _'Kaoru-hime, think of Kaoru-hime. You must save her at all costs. You needn't live with the guilt - you're going to hell anyway, why not just die a bit sooner, along with the rest of your victims?'_

The sword steadied in his grip.

"Good-bye, Kaoru-hime," he whispered.

_To be continued..._


	3. Bye Bye, Death Star

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode III - Bye Bye, Death Star** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

_'HEY! Idiot! Is the life of one woman you happen to know worth a whole battle station full of lives you _don't_ personally know? Are you God now, Himura Kenshin, to decide who lives and dies? What use is your vow if you break it in a moment of weakness!'_

The sakabatō tumbled out of Kenshin's hands. He collapsed to his knees, gasping with the strength of his emotion. "I can't do it...forgive me Kaoru-hime, forgive me, I cannot do it, even to save you..." The heavy sense of his failure seemed to pour over him in waves. "I can't, I can't..."

Choking back tears, Kenshin straightened and picked up the sword again. If he was going to die, it was better to go down fighting than to let death catch him behaving like a child. If he could somehow find the central control room before the Death Star got close enough to fire at Yavin 5, maybe he could alter its course or disable its main cannon or something-

What was that?

Kenshin frowned when he noticed that the self-destruct trigger was not the only device in the room. Fitted into another wall was a small box, outfitted with pulsing wires that resembled the veins of a triangle.

"That can't be...a flux capacitor, can it? So they exist after all." Kenshin burst into laughter, sheathed his sword, and strode purposefully over to the device.

0-0-0-0-0

_"This is Red 5. The mission has been accomplished. Please stand by."_

There was an outburst of cheering in the rebel command center, but it was muted from anxiousness, since the Death Star had not exploded yet, after all. Kaoru kept her eyes fixed on the monitors until she saw the little red dot that was Kenshin's fighter some soaring clear of the Death Star. She breathed a sigh of relief, smiling as she watched the rest of their fleet come tearing out of the battle at top speed.

"Stand by!" someone was shouting. "Everyone stand by for the Death Star's destruction!" There was a long, excruciating moment when the entire rebellion seemed to hold its breath.

Then the Death Star vanished.

Silence.

Frowning, Kaoru leaned over to speak into the commlink. "Um, Kenshin? The Death Star was kind of supposed to...explode. Not, you know, just wink out of sight like that."

_"Was it? Ah well."_ There was a puzzling thread of good humor running through his voice. _"Don't worry, Kaoru-hime. The Death Star is gone."_

"...If you say so, Kenshin."

After the realization of victory finally sank in, Kaoru grinned and joined the other hordes of rebels who swarmed into the hangar, waiting to glomp Kenshin the second he landed.

0-0-0-0-0

A few days later at the awards ceremony, three people were being recognized for their valor in the historic battle.

Kenshin, Sanosuke, and Megumi marched solemnly down the red carpet, accompanied by musical fanfare. Sanosuke strode proudly and even waved as if he was in a parade; Megumi glanced at him and rolled her eyes, then resumed a straight face; and Kenshin tugged uncomfortably at his collar, not used to either the fancy clothes or all the attention.

Kaoru was grinning as they stepped up to her to receive their commendations. She was gratified to see Kenshin's face suddenly light up with a smile, and she turned to find Yahiko, now completely restored and gleaming, standing at her side.

"Himura Kenshin," Kaoru announced, placing a medal around his neck, "receive this for your deeds in battle, along with your new name - Battousai, after the battoujutsu you performed to trigger the Death Star's self-detonation device."

Kenshin squirmed, but said nothing. He had indeed performed battoujutsu in order to power the device that made the Death Star disappear...but he had never said specifically that that device had been the self-destruct mechanism. Everyone had assumed that.

Smiling, the princess then turned to the co-pilots of the _Sagara Falcon_, the fastest ship in the galaxy. "Sagara Sanosuke and Takani Megumi, please receive these medals in recognition of your contribution to this battle. We will forever be grateful for your help in our hour of dire need."

"Ah, it wasn't that big a deal," Sanosuke muttered, obviously pleased.

Megumi smiled. "How lovely, Kaoru-san, but really, all the praise goes to _Ken-san_, don't you think?" Kaoru's eyes bugged out as Megumi slid over to the surprised Kenshin and wrapped her arms possessively around one of his. "A hero deserves a hero's welcome," she stage-whispered into his ear. "What do you say we go back to my quarters afterwards and-"

"MEGUMI-SAN!" Kaoru roared, diving at her in a rage.

The audience members, after glancing at each other in confusion, finally shrugged and began to applaud and cheer, despite the sudden violence up on the dais. After all, the galaxy's greatest threat was now gone, and the people could now enjoy a time of peace and prosperity...

...for a while, at least.

_To be continued..._


	4. Love in the Midst of Peril

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode IV - Love in the Midst of Peril** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

_The Meiji Rebel Alliance has been scattered. Our heroes are hiding out on the snowy world of Hoth, making snow angels in their spare time and trying not to freeze. Darth Enishi, determined to find Himura Kenshin, has sent out probe droids across the galaxy to locate the troublesome redhead..._

0-0-0

"The mind," Kenshin grumbled through chattering teeth, "is capable of moving past all pain and discomfort...so why is this one still so cold?" The winds howled around him, flinging little bits of snow into his face where he was perched atop a tauntaun.

The communicator in his glove burst into static. _"Oi, Kenshin, I'm done with my rounds. You find anything?"_

"Just a meteorite," Kenshin reported. "This one was thinking to check it out before heading back to the base."

_"Fine with me, I'll let 'em know you'll be along. Sagara out."_

Kenshin disconnected and was just picking up the reins of his mount when a huge white form loomed up in front of him. Kenshin just had time to shout, "Not again!" before crashing to the ground, felled by a blow to the head.

0-0-0-0-0

At the Meiji base on Hoth, Sanosuke shed his snow gear and made his way through the busy hangar where some small ships, including the _Sagara Falcon_, were docked. Spotting the princess talking to a technician by the computers, he made his way over to her to say good-bye.

Kaoru glanced over at the sound of his footsteps, and smiled when she saw him. "Hi, Sanosuke. Glad to see you made it back all right."

Sanosuke shrugged with exaggerated carelessness. "Aw, the cold here ain't nothin'. You should see what winter's like on planet Hokkaido."

"Is that so?" she smirked. "Next time, Sano, try saying that _after_ your ears have thawed."

He cursed as he reached up for the tips of his ears, which were still tinged with blue. "Whatever. Look, I just came over to...you know."

"Ah," she realized. She smiled and shook his hand. "It was really great to have you with us this long, Sanosuke. I may not act like it some of the time, but I really appreciate the work you've done for us."

"Only _some_ of the time?" he wondered teasingly, and raised a hand to block her Flying Fist of Revenge. "Easy, Princess. It's - surprisingly - been a great ride for me, too. And it's not like I'm skipping out on y'all or anything," he added hurriedly. "It's just that I've just gotta get that slug off my case-"

"I know," she assured him. "Having a price on your head isn't easy. Live long and prosper, Sano."

He paused, then grinned. "So you're really okay with me leaving."

She shrugged. "Sure. It's not like I'm unsuccessfully pretending I'm not in love with you or anything."

"All right, well, Megumi and I're heading out soon, so tell Kenshin bye for me if he doesn't get back in time, okay?"

Kaoru's eyes slid over his shoulder. "Um, okay...but I'm not so sure you're right about the 'soon' part."

Sanosuke frowned, then turned to see what the princess was looking at and nearly choked. "MEGUMI!" he bellowed, running for the _Sagara Falcon_, "What are you DOING, woman?"

Megumi looked down at him from where she was perched gracefully atop the _Sagara Falcon_. "It's called repairs, Captain," she said sweetly. Her foot shifted casually, so that a large mechanical chunk came bouncing down. "Oops, watch out," she told him - _after_ the object had collided with Sanosuke's head.

Cursing, Sanosuke shouted back at her, "Why the heck are you taking the ship apart now? In case you haven't noticed, we're trying to _leave_!"

"_You're_ trying to leave!" she shouted back down at him, finally losing her temper. "Did it ever occur to you to consult your first mate about it? _No!_"

"Why, you wanna stay or something?" he said incredulously.

"We happen to be fighting a _war_ here, you big stupid idiot."

"And I happen to have a _price_ on my head, you-"

"Don't," Megumi breathed, "even - think - about it."

Sanosuke grinned vengefully. "Think about what, Megu-baka?" Then he was forced to dodge again, as pieces of machinery came raining down on him.

Shaking her head, Kaoru left them to it and went to find the deck officer. She ran into a familiar little droid within a few steps. "Oh, Yahiko!"

"Huh?" the droid burst out nervously. "It wasn't my fault!"

Kaoru frowned in confusion. "What wasn't your fault?"

"Oh...uh, nothing. Just, uh, do me a favor and don't go back to your room for a few hours, okay?" Her soggy clothes _should_ have time to dry out by then, he hoped.

She gave him a suspicious look. "Why, what have you been doing in my room?"

"Heating it up for you," he answered, truthfully enough. "It just, uh, takes some time to warm up."

Kaoru shook her head. "All right, whatever. You don't happen to have heard any news about Kenshin, have you?"

"Kenshin? No, why?"

"Sano said he was still out there, and it's getting dark." Kaoru looked worriedly at the outside doors, which were currently open but would not remain so for much longer. "I'm a little worried."

"About Kenshin?" droid scoffed. "No way anything can hurt him."

"I guess you're right," she said doubtfully.

0-0-0-0-0

Even as they spoke, Kenshin was regaining consciousness and wondering why he had such a headache. _'This one supposes that getting knocked on the head and then hanging upside-down for an indeterminate length of time is a likely cause,'_ he thought ruefully when he got his bearings. His feet were bound to the ceiling of an icy cave, and he could hear very icky crunching noises coming from somewhere nearby. He was trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, not to look at the creature making those noises.

Looking around a little desperately, Kenshin was highly relieved to catch sight of his sakabatou stuck in the snow nearby - unfortunately it was not much help, since there was no way he could reach it. _'Now what would Shishou do in this situation?'_ he thought, wincing a little. _'Besides drink sake.'_ It was not really a helpful speculation, since there was absolutely no way Kenshin could see Hiko Seijuurou stuck in a position like this.

He sighed. No sword, no Shishou. What else was there?

The crunching sounds stopped. Fearfully, he glanced at the *snow monster* and was very unhappy to see that its attention was now on him. It dropped its gory chunk of tauntaun flesh and got to its huge hairy feet. _'Think, Himura!'_ He gazed up at his imprisoned feet, then frowned. He was going to have to free himself without his hands...

Drawing in a deep breath, he closed his eyes and drew his sword-aura around him. Then with a fierce yell, he thrust it up and was startled with the suddenness of his release.

Dropping painfully to the ground, it took him a moment to recover and snatch at his sword; just in time, he scrambled to his feet and slashed at the approaching creature. Its deafening roars of pain chased him out of the cave, but he had not made it far into the snow outside when the cold began to lay deadly hold of him. Numb and exhausted, he had no idea how far he had come when he realized he was not going to be able to go any farther. He did not even feel himself hit the ground.

0-0-0-0-0

"What do you mean Kenshin hasn't come back?" Sanosuke said impatiently. "He said he was just checking out a meteorite, that wouldn't take him more than a few minutes!"

"Checking out a meteorite wouldn't take him more than a few minutes," Kaoru said insistently, "but who knows what other trouble he might have run into? Please Sanosuke, just go out and see if he's all right!"

"_Just go out and see,_" he mimicked, "as if it's just a walk in the park. I could freeze to death out there, Princess!"

"So could Kenshin," Yahiko pointed out.

"But he's Kenshin! He's invincible!"

"If you think that, you're an even bigger idiot than I thought!" Megumi shouted from where she was still sulking atop the _Falcon_.

"No one asked you, woman!" he yelled back over his shoulder. Then he sighed and shook his head. "Fine, Princess, I'll go look for him. It'll be _your_ fault if my butt freezes off."

"Thanks so much, Sanosuke!" Kaoru said brightly.

"Yeah, yeah, go practice shinai swings or something."

0-0-0-0-0

"Baka deshi...baka deshi..."

Kenshin made an incoherent sleepy noise.

"Oi!" A sudden burst of pain as he was kicked. "Are you listening to me?"

"You're supposed to be dead," Kenshin mumbled, blinking blearily up at his old master. All this snow was making it so hard to think...

"Of course I'm not dead, moron. Now listen. I've been waiting for you on Dagobah, so fly there as soon as your sorry butt gets rescued. We've got a lot to do and not _nearly_ enough time to do it in. You got all that?"

"Dagobah," Kenshin repeated obediently. "Go to Dagobah."

"Good. The longer you keep me waiting, the more I'm going to enjoy *torturing- I mean, training you."

"That's nice," Kenshin said vaguely, and lost consciousness. Therefore he did not see Hiko fiddle with a device on his wrist before disappearing.

Just at that moment, Sanosuke came riding through the blizzard, finding Kenshin solely because of the fact that his tauntaun nearly stepped on the fallen swordsman. "Kenshin!" He jumped off and anxiously shook his nearly frozen friend. "Kenshin! Geez, don't be such a pansy! You're only supposed to be like this when you're sliced half to pieces!"

"Dagobah," Kenshin mumbled. "Shishou..."

Sanosuke's tauntaun chose that moment to conveniently keel over dead. Sanosuke looked at it, then at Kenshin's weapon. "Kenshin!" he yelled in annoyance. "How am I supposed to slice open a tauntaun with a sakabatou?"

0-0-0-0-0

The next morning, Kaoru rushed to greet the wanderers as they were brought in. "Sanosuke!" she cried, "how did you survive?"

"Um," he said uncomfortably, "we didn't quite...Kenshin's dead."

"WHAT?" Kaoru pounced on the inert figure that had just been unloaded from the cruiser. "Kenshin! Kenshin, wake UP!"

"Kaoru-hime Dagobah love go," he suddenly mumbled senselessly.

"Kenshin!" she cried gladly, glomping him.

"Hey!" Sano said indignantly. "What's with this, Kenshin? You weren't breathing just a second ago!"

"Behold, the power of love," Yahiko remarked in its robotic monotone.

0-0-0-0-0

"Kaoru-san," Megumi said mischievously, as they stood in the ship's medical center watching Kenshin recovering in a healing capsule. "I know you enjoy the sight of Ken-san mostly naked, but really, the drool is a bit much."

"Wh-What? It's not, I wasn't!" Kaoru cried, hastily wiping her chin.

0-0-0-0-0

"Glad to see you back, Kenshin," Yahiko said, patting him awkwardly on the shoulder. "Master Kenshin, whatever."

Kenshin, looking rather worse for wear but with the same old smile in place, thanked him for the concern.

"Now look, you're not good as new, so I'm serious, take it easy for a while, Ken-san," Megumi instructed. "No Ultimate Battles in the near future, okay?"

"This one will comply as best he can, Megumi-dono," Kenshin said honestly.

"Ahem," Sanosuke said meaningfully. "I think some thanks are in order here, for a certain person's saving of a certain other person's life."

"You have this one's sincere gratitude, Sano," Kenshin said in amusement. Then his gaze automatically moved on to Kaoru, but at the sight of her, he suddenly remembered the central content of this scene and looked away hurriedly, hoping vainly that his face did not look as hot as it felt.

Kaoru had been blushing madly for quite some time. "Um..." An awkward silence descended.

"Well, come on," Yahiko prompted. "Get on with it already."

"Not while you're all watching!" Kaoru burst out. "Go away."

"Not a chance," Sanosuke said with relish, folding his arms as if he intended to make himself comfortable for a while. "I am good and ready to be entertained."

"Sanosuke!" Kaoru yelled furiously.

"What's wrong, Kaoru-san?" Megumi smirked, suddenly sporting a becoming pair of fox-ears. "Afraid you're incapable of generating even a spark of chemistry? Can't say I blame you. Why don't you let a _real_ woman try her hand at-"

Kaoru suddenly marched over Kenshin, seized the startled redhead and practically attacked his mouth with hers. After a moment the rage cooled, but just before embarrassment could catch up with her that the kiss was rather one-sided and probably not pleasurable for him at all, she felt his arms coming around her. As the one-sidedness suddenly switched, she was shocked at the glorious sensation of his mouth claiming hers; her squeezed-shut eyes opened just in time to find his doing the same. For an instant, blue gazed into hot amber in amazement as their lips lingered against each other, and Kaoru realized distantly that she had somehow ended up in his lap with her hands buried luxuriously in his now-disheveled hair. Then their eyes closed again and their ministrations resumed, this time in total unity.

Sanosuke's mouth was hanging open. "Uh...okay, thanks...I've had enough...oi, scene requirements were met, like, five minutes ago...oi! Cut it out, you two!"

"I don't think they heard you," Megumi said dryly.

"Excuse me," Yahiko said in a strangled voice, "I think I'm due for a memory wipe, I'll see you all later...much, much later..."

"Ugh," Sanosuke finally groaned, "I'm getting out of here before the med-droids have to come back to deliver a freaking baby."

Neither Kenshin nor Kaoru noticed their friends leave, nor would they have cared if they had.

0-0-0-0-0

Unfortunately for the rebels, they had finally been found. Kenshin's meteorite was nothing less than an imperial probe droid which set Darth Enishi eagerly on their trail. As the Meiji base made preparations for evacuation, Kenshin suited up and headed for his fighter, pausing when he passed the _Sagara Falcon_. "Sano," he called up.

Sanosuke peered inquiringly over the edge of the ship, where he and Megumi had made a temporary truce in order to make the necessary repairs. "You heading off, Kenshin?"

"Yes." There was an awkward pause. "Er...good luck Sano, Megumi-dono. This one hopes we will meet again."

Sanosuke grinned and saluted, though he didn't actually answer. Megumi called down, "Remember, Ken-san - no Ultimate Battles!"

"This one will do his best," Kenshin answered, smiling.

"No, not your best!" she insisted. "_No_ Ultimate Battles means _none_!"

"Understood, Megumi-dono," he said agreeably, and continued on his way.

"Just because you understood," Megumi grumbled, "doesn't necessarily mean you're going to listen to a word I say, does it."

"Aw come on, Megumi," Sanosuke pointed out. "It's not like you usually get to choose whether or not you're gonna fight an Ultimate Battle."

Megumi sighed unhappily. "True."

Kenshin found Kaoru surrounded by a crowd of pilots, giving them instructions with the utmost confidence despite the fact that she was younger and shorter than all of them. He watched her, smiling at the sight of her petite, beautiful figure in the midst of all these burly, serious-faced men. His cheeks warmed in remembrance of what had happened in the med room, and his lips tingled.

Once the men were dispersed, Kenshin approached her slowly. She saw him coming and waited, her hands clasped behind her back, holding his eyes even though her own cheeks were coloring as well. He came within a pace of her and stopped.

"Hi," she finally whispered.

"Hi," he whispered back.

Then she hid her face against him and hugged him, and he put his arms around her. Holding her felt so good...he wished they had more time. "You're going out with the defense line," she mumbled unhappily.

"Is there something else this one ought to be doing?" he asked gently.

"No." She squeezed him tighter. "I just wish...you could come with me."

He kissed her hair regretfully. "Kaoru-hime...this one is afraid he is not going to be meeting the rest of you at the rendezvous point."

She stiffened, then stepped back and looked at him, frowning. "What?"

"There is something that needs to be done," he said slowly. "Kaoru-hime...do you understand? My duty to the Alliance will be fulfilled, but it is not the only call on this one's life."

Kaoru stared at the ground for a while, not answering. Then, to his surprise, she reached out and touched the hilt of his sakabatō. "I understand," she finally said. She looked back up at him. "I'll be waiting for you, Kenshin." He drew her close and kissed her. She put her arms around his neck and hugged him. "Come back to me." Then she suddenly let go and walked away, not looking at him. He knew she did not want him to see her tears, so he simply bowed and went his own way.

The battle was fierce and inevitably a losing one for the Alliance. They managed to hold off the imperials long enough to get a few transports out, but by that time it was hopeless for the defense line; everyone who still could were in retreat and rushing for their own escape vehicles.

As Kenshin climbed into his X-wing and readied it for take-off, he listened tensely to the erratic transmissions being tossed all over the communication lines for news of the princess. For a moment his heart was in his mouth when he heard that access to her transport was blocked, but then he learned with a surge of relief that Sanosuke and Megumi had gotten her onto the _Falcon_. He rose into the air and, once in space, searched frantically for the other ship, wanting to make sure that they escaped all right. "Sano!" he finally called through the commlink, wincing against the barrage of laser fire he was forced to dodge. "Sano, where are you?"

_"Can't talk, kinda busy!"_ his friend's voice shouted back through the static.

"Kaoru-hime - Kaoru-hime, are you all right?"

_"I don't know, Sanosuke's running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and Megumi-san is looking more irritated than usual..._what_, Yahiko?"_

The droid's tinny voice could be heard bleating in the background, but Kenshin couldn't pick up the words. He definitely caught Kaoru's, though.

_"WHAT? What do you mean the hyperdrive's busted?"_

"The hyperdrive is _what_?" Kenshin shouted. He did not receive an answer, however. He cursed, searching harder than ever for the _Falcon_; he had to make sure they would be all right. Crazily dodging enemy fighters, he swooped close to a star destroyer and vengefully blasted at its shield generator. Having given them something to think about besides hunting him and his friends, Kenshin returned his attention to looking for them.

_"Baka deshi, what the heck are you doing?"_

"Shishou?" Kenshin exclaimed in absolute amazement. Though the reception wasn't perfect, the voice of Hiko Seijūrō was coming through his commlinks loud and clear.

_"Let me guess. You got caught up in your own selfish preoccupations and haven't even programmed Dagobah into your destination system."_

"This one's friends are in danger!"

_"So what?"_ Hiko was sounding distinctly annoyed. _"They're not babies, you know. What makes you think you're obliged to go running around rescuing them every two seconds?"_

"The princess is caught out here in this madhouse," Kenshin said angrily. "This one will _not_ let anything happen to her, that he won't."

_"Listen, baka deshi. What I need to teach you is _important_. Have some faith in your friends and _get - over - here - NOW."

Kenshin swallowed. His eyes strayed out to the star-studded darkness outside the cockpit, flashing in the light of enemy fire. Then he took a deep breath. "Kaoru-hime..."

_"Kenshin?"_

"This one..."

_"Kenshin,"_ she said hurriedly, _"Megumi-san says we need to cut commlink connections. I love you!"_

"Kaoru-hime!" There was only silence. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again and punched in the coordinates for Dagobah.

On the _Sagara Falcon_, panic and mayhem were the order of the day as Sanosuke ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, and Megumi looked more irritated than usual. "Kaoru-san, Yahiko, keep an eye on what's going on out there," she said shortly. "I've got to go help my idiot captain make sure the ship doesn't fall apart any more than it already has."

Kaoru made a vague noise of protest, but the other woman was already hurrying off somewhere into the bowels of the ship. Kaoru sighed and then looked apprehensively out the cockpit windows with the droid.

"You think we're gonna survive this?" it asked.

"My guess is...no," she admitted, and her throat tightened as she thought of Kenshin. _'Be safe,'_ she thought at him. Hopefully he would get out of this disaster zone as soon as possible.

"Um...Princess?" Yahiko said uncertainly. "You see that stuff out there?"

"See what...?" Kaoru started, then trailed off. Her eyes widened. "All those...it can't be-" Then she lunged for the interior commlink and shrieked into it. "Sanosuke! Megumi-san! Get up here, quick!"

The two came rushing back, wasting no time when they saw that the ship had entered an asteroid field. "Why are you going further in?" Kaoru shrieked. "Are you insane?"

"Need you ask?" Megumi growled, glaring at her partner.

"Those imperial maggots would be crazy to follow us in here, right?" Sanosuke said happily.

"Uh...Captain," Yahiko pointed out, "some imperial maggots have followed us in here."

"Thanks for the info," Sanosuke snapped, leaning forward tensely as his hands danced over the controls. "Megumi, adjust the shields' power input; Princess, buckle up. This is gonna get rough."

"_Gonna_ get rough?" she repeated, and reeled backwards as the ship was struck by an asteroid. "It already _is_!"

Weaving crazily through the huge pieces of rock waltzing obliviously through space, the _Sagara Falcon_ just barely managed to elude the laser blasts of pursuit, and a few of the enemy fighters, unluckier than they, where knocked out of existence as they continued through the asteroid field. However, it was becoming more and more obvious by the second that they needed to get out of the open as soon as possible, and Sanosuke piloted them closer to one of the bigger, slower-moving asteroids.

"There," he said, pointing.

"There what?" Yahiko wanted to know.

"We're clear for the moment, Sanosuke," Megumi reported. "Hurry, before any more show up." The ship wheeled around in a graceful arc and disappeared into a cavern deep in the heart of the mass of rock.

Meanwhile, Kenshin was approaching Dagobah and studying it warily. "No cities...and yet massive life readings...somehow that gives this one a bad feeling." A few minutes later, as Kenshin sat stunned with his X-wing halfway sunk in a swamp, he decided ruefully that he should have paid more attention to his instincts.

Back within in the asteroid, Yahiko was attempting with some frustration to talk to the _Sagara Falcon_'s hyperdrive, and the ship was occasionally lurching mysteriously. At one point Megumi ended up conveniently in Sanosuke's lap. He grinned. "Well, this is nice."

"To you, maybe," she snapped. "Let go."

"No, I think I won't," he drawled. "It's kind of cold in here...good to have a bit of nice warm curvy softness to take the chills away." One slap later, Sanosuke listened to the sound of his first mate's footsteps being cut off by the sound of the cockpit door whisking shut, and he sighed. "Idiot woman, can't take a joke..." He sat there a few minutes longer, his chin in his hand, his eyes far away and wistful.

On Dagobah, the first thing Kenshin did, after he had finished struggling to shore through the slimy muck with his equipment, was to peel off his jumpsuit. Wrinkling his nose, he tossed the sodden icky garment aside and began setting up camp. Once the electric lamp was lit and the food was being warmed, the little makeshift campsite seemed slightly cheerier, but Kenshin still shivered as he looked around at the twisty, mist-shrouded trees. Who knew what strange creatures lurked in the fog, making those spine-tingling noises and possibly intending to sneak up on him the minute he closed his eyes to sleep-

"It's about time, baka deshi."

Kenshin yelped and scrambled to his feet, then breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw it was only Hiko.

_Only_ Hiko?

"Shishou!" he cried in amazement. The man seemed healthy and whole, too solid to be a ghost or a hallucination. "You're here - how can you be alive?"

"What gave you the impression I was dead?" Hiko snapped.

"Oh," Kenshin responded sarcastically, "just the fact that Darth Enishi sliced you in half."

Hiko snorted in derision. "That kid? He couldn't beat me in a million years. Seriously, do they not have teleportation devices in this universe?" He held up his wrist for Kenshin to stare at - he was wearing some sort of mechanism on it with small buttons and blinking lights.

"Teleportation..."

"Or maybe that's _Star Trek_...whatever. Let's get going, we've got so much work to do it's not even funny. You _did_ bring your sword, didn't you?"

Kenshin, who never went anywhere without it, patted it confidently, then was forced to dodge as Hiko came charging at him full swing.

Back on the _Sagara Falcon_, Megumi was working on one of the control panels when she sensed someone come up behind her. Her back stiffened, for she knew what came next. "Don't - you - _dare_."

"Dare what?" Yahiko asked in confusion.

Megumi frowned, then turned to face the droid. "Oh. It's you." Relief warred with disappointment.

"Yeah. Look, I've been talking to the _Falcon_, and it's been giving me a lot of lip but I think I've figured out what's wrong with the hyperdrive. You know where the spare power couplings are?"

"Um," Megumi stammered, her thoughts elsewhere, "um, oh, right. Yes, they're in the supply closet, fifth drawer from the top."

"Thanks." Yahiko clanked off, leaving Megumi to sigh as she sagged back against the wall. She touched her fingers experimentally to her lips...then she heard his footsteps. She did not look at him as he approached and halted just beside her.

"Workin' hard?" Sanosuke finally asked conversationally, "Or hardly workin'?"

"Haha," she said tonelessly, staring straight ahead.

Neither of them spoke, and after a moment he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks, Megumi," he said quietly. "You've been a big help. You know you're the only reason that keeps me and this hunk of junk flying."

She glanced over at him, surprised.

He grinned at her. "See? I can be nice sometimes."

"...Just a little," she admitted grudgingly. "Not enough to win my kisses, though."

She tried to push past him, but his hand slid down her arm and suddenly gripped her wrist. She swung to a stop and glared back at him - and he raised her palm to his lips and kissed it.

"My hands are dirty!" she exclaimed before she could stop herself.

He smacked his lips. "Mm mm. I just love the taste of mechanic's oil, as long as I can get some soft skin along with it."

The blood was rushing to her cheeks. "Shut up!" she shouted. "You never talk like that!"

"Maybe if I did," he mused, releasing her hand, "you'd smile at me more."

She stared at him for a minute. Then she turned on her heel and marched away, her thoughts whirling.

0-0-0-0-0

All the highest-ranking officers on Darth Enishi's star destroyer were running and screaming in terror as the hulking black figure paced menacingly down the corridors after them. "Stop running away!" he yelled. "How am I supposed to kill you incompetent stupid-heads if you're scurrying around like little rodents?"

"Forgive us, Ultimate Lord Enishi-sama!" they screamed over their shoulders, but did not slow their frantic flight. "We'll find the _Sagara Falcon_, we promise! Aaaaagggghhhh!"

"Lord Enishi!"

Enishi paused, then pointed his sword at the lackey that had just run up to him.

"Eeep! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't kill me, I'm just a random, low-ranking minion!"

"You are staying interestingly still," Enishi said gleefully, caressing the man's throat with the blade.

"THE EMPEROR COMMANDS YOU TO CONTACT HIM AT ONCE!" the terrified man screamed, then collapsed in a dead faint.

Enishi cursed. "Forget that! I'm busy!" He turned with the intention of resuming the chase, but then a hologram wavered into sight before him.

_"Enishi,"_ the emperor's voice came coldly over the transmission. Shrouded in a scratchy-looking robe, features hidden behind the bandages that wrapped his face, he was lounging on a couch with a beautiful woman simpering at his elbow, and he did not look pleased.

"What?" the dark lord said irritably. "By the way, lady, your boobs are showing."

The woman gasped and indignantly straightened up to tug her collar more securely over her generous cleavage. _"How dare you! Only Shishio-sama has the right to look upon my bosom!"_

"Why do you put it on display, then?" Enishi pointed out.

_"Enishi, shut up. I'm calling to order you to kill Himura Kenshin, though-"_

"What do you think I've been _trying_ to do?" Enishi snarled.

_"Just wanted to make sure you weren't having second thoughts, considering your family connection and all."_

"I want his head on a spike! I want to rip off his-" The transmission experienced some interference so that Shishio and Yumi missed the next bit. "-for daring to touch my sister! I want to-!"

_"Great, wonderful, I get the point. However, Himura Kenshin at full strength is a fairly decent warrior. Killing him is only a last resort. I'd prefer we attempt to use him for our own ends before you wreak your revenge-"_

"No! NO! He's going to DIE!"

Shishio rolled his eyes. _"In case you forgot, he was quite a useful agent for me at one point. I doubt he'd fall for the same trap a second time, especially now that half his powers are useless, but I hear he's learning Hiten Mitsurugi-ryuu now. With some delicate handling, he could be useful to me once again. I _would_ entrust you with the task of breaking down his ridiculous vow and forcing a _real_ sword into his hands, but under the circumstances..."_

He paused to study Darth Enishi, who was now shrieking at the ceiling in an ecstasy of rage, having apparently not heard a word. _"Forget it. Looks like I'll have to do it myself, yet again."_ He sighed. _"Carry on."_

_'With any luck,'_ he thought as the transmission was cut, _'Enishi will get himself blown up by an asteroid, leaving a Himura-shaped Sith vacancy.'_ He smiled at Yumi. "Here's hoping."

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin staggered back to his feet for what felt like the millionth time, fiercely blinking the stars out of his vision. "Shishou..."

"Less talking, more fighting. Come at me!"

"No!" Kenshin cried in exasperation. "You'll just pound this one into the dirt again, like last time, that you will! Oh, and the time before that! And, that's right, the time before-!"

"Cut the whining," Hiko snapped in disgust. "Believe it or not, you _are_ getting stronger, even if you can't tell in comparison to my magnificence."

"Grr..."

"All right then, guess it's time to work on your defense." This time it was Hiko who charged, though that made no difference to the result.

"Ugghh..."

"What are you lazing around for, baka deshi? Get up and try to block me again."

"Nggh-! Hyoooo-! (guh)"

Kenshin flopped back to the ground yet again, and Hiko shook his head in disappointment. "What did Katsura ever see in you..." He studied his apprentice, who was making a valiant effort to get back to his feet once again, and for a brief instant, they locked eyes. _'Oh. Right.'_ He sighed. The boy's heart was in the right place anyway, and after all, it was too much to expect _anyone_ to be able to match his own awesomeness. Kenshin actually wouldn't be too bad against a dark lord...but the goal was to get him _stronger_ than Enishi, not simply capable of lasting over five minutes in a battle with him.

Hiko hefted his sword. "Again."

0-0-0-0-0

"Who are these punks?" Darth Enishi demanded of one of his new officers (the old ones were still in hiding), pointing at the line of grungy-looking aliens.

"Er...bounty hunters, sir. To aid in the capture of the _Sagara Falcon_."

Enishi swirled around on the bounty hunters. "Did I _say_ I needed help, bounty hunter scum?"

The line shifted as the hunters eyed each other uneasily. "Uh...no?" one of them ventured.

"Exactly. Now get out!"

The bounty hunters hurriedly moved back in the direction of their ships, except for one who regarded Enishi coldly, smoking a cigarette. "I've got my own reasons for wanting Sagara. Don't worry about paying me, I'm not doing this for you."

Darth Enishi glared at him suspiciously. The bounty hunter, with cold narrowed eyes, glared right back. Enishi finally shrugged. "Whatever. Just stay out of my way."

The bounty hunter flicked his cigarette to the floor, where it was immediately attacked by a frantic cleaning droid. "As long as you stay out of mine."

"I've strangled people for talking to me that way," Enishi growled warningly.

The man shrugged. "Try it."

After a moment, Enishi smirked. "Nah, I don't feel like it. Now get out of here, bounty hunter scum."

"The name is Saitou," he said coldly.

"Saitou scum," Enishi giggled.

"Laugh now, Yukishiro. One day you won't be able to."

As Saitou walked leisurely out of the room, Enishi stared after him in shock. His name...the horrible Saitou scum knew his real name...

0-0-0-0-0

Hiko decided it was time for a break when his apprentice failed to rise even after being kicked. "Let's go, baka deshi."

Kenshin shifted desperately and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Must...kill...Shishou...," but was unable to get up.

Hiko rolled his eyes and went to sit down on a tree root, where he poured himself some sake.

After a while, Kenshin, with a series of tortured groans, at last succeeded in hauling himself upright. Then he sat there for a while, looking glassy-eyed and depressed. After another while he blinked and turned his head slowly, looking out into the misty forest. "Has that cave always been there?"

"Of course it has," Hiko lied casually.

Kenshin shivered. "This one feels...so cold..."

Hiko took another sip of sake.

"Shishou...what's in there?"

Hiko shrugged. "Something bad. Go beat it up, baka deshi."

Kenshin climbed slowly to his feet, senses fully alert, staring tensely at the cave. Then he picked up his sakabatou and limped away into the darkness.

For a while he saw nothing unexpected, though he was trembling with dread. Determinedly he pushed on, passing reptiles that gave him wary looks before slithering away in the opposite direction from where he was headed.

Kenshin froze.

Just around the next corner was an approaching red glow that looked entirely too familiar.

"Oh...no...please..." he whispered. Panic was rising in him. "Not again! Not-"

The figure came into sight. In face and form it resembled Kenshin exactly, from the long red hair to the slight, graceful build. Unlike him, however, it was dressed in robes of black and carried an active lightsaber instead of a sakabatou. There was one other difference - instead of Kenshin's soft blue, the eyes were hard and gold in color, and blazing with bloodlust and misguided rage.

Neither of them said a word. The glowing red blade flashed in the darkness; Kenshin spun away from its descending arc, his sword useless to defend against it. He could only attack-

He had reversed the blade. He realized that too late; he was already staring down at the severed head, still glaring fixedly up at him despite the gore trickling from the stump of its neck. The body thudded to the ground, and red liquid came sloshing around Kenshin's feet. He cried out and raised his hand as if to ward away the truth of what he had done-

It was his sword-hand. For the first time, the sakabatou's blade was stained crimson.

Kenshin could not breathe; tears of horror were running down his cheeks as he stared and stared at the defiled blade. He had...he had...

He had slaughtered himself. How could...? What was...?

Kenshin pressed his hand over his mouth and choked back a sob. Was it murder, to kill one's self? Was it murder, to avenge the blood of so many innocents?

Hiko looked up at the sound of distant screaming, and cursed. "Stupid, stupid idiot..." He climbed to his feet and strode over to the cave to drag out the quivering puddle his apprentice had apparently melted into. He had failed. The stupid idiot had failed. This mistake might take a long time to fix, time they could not afford to spare.

0-0-0-0-0

A hysterical shrieking from the princess led first to a harmless mynock-hunt, then a much less harmless shifting of the cave, then the horrified realization that they weren't exactly _in_ a cave, then a frantic emergence right into their enemies' sights again.

"Well, this looks familiar," Yahiko commented.

"At least the ship's not falling apart this time," Sanosuke snapped. "Hold on everyone, we're about to jump-"

The hyperdrive whined for a tense moment, then died.

Sanosuke leaned over and pounded his head against the control panel.

"Watch it," Megumi told him. "We don't have enough first aid to deal properly with concussions. Of course, that probably doesn't matter anyway, since your brain seems to already be injured beyond repair."

He raised his face and gave her a slightly hurt look. "Did I really deserve that?"

Kaoru and Yahiko looked curiously at Megumi, who was actually shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "I...it's...a habit," she mumbled awkwardly. Then, in a whisper all but Yahiko could barely hear, "I'm sorry."

Sanosuke grinned and straightened up. "We'll get out of this. I have a plan."

A few moments later, "THIS ISN'T A PLAN!" three piercing voices were shrieking at him, "THIS IS _SUICIDE_!"

"Hey, don't you trust me?" he said defensively as the _Falcon_ soared straight at the closest star destroyer.

"**NO**!"

To the relief of all, their distrust was unfounded. Attached directly onto the star destroyer itself, they were too close for its trackers to be able to pick them up. Once the _Sagara Falcon_'s systems were shut down, it was amazingly easy to float away among the garbage that was dumped from the imperial ship just before it zoomed into lightspeed.

After a moment, seeing that the others were too stunned to say it for him, Sanosuke remarked proudly, "Genius." Then his eyes went huge as Megumi suddenly dove at him and kissed him.

"I'm out of here," Yahiko exclaimed, frantically trundling out of the cockpit. He was so not ready for a repeat of the last make-out session he had witnessed.

0-0-0-0-0

"Better now?" Hiko queried, looking a little anxiously at his apprentice.

"I'm _drunk_," Kenshin answered brightly, then collapsed and rolled around on the ground, laughing hysterically.

Hiko pressed a hand over his eyes. He snapped up again when Kenshin suddenly emitted a wail of distress.

"Shishoooouuuu!"

"What? _What?_" he demanded harshly, going over to him.

Kenshin stared up at him with huge, watery blue eyes that Hiko frantically steeled himself against before they could melt his heart. "I...I...I...I'm out of sakeeeee!"

"Oh for cryin' out loud!"

Hours and hours later, Hiko sighed and got up from where he had been meditating, and found that Kenshin had woken up. The boy was- Well, of course he was no longer a child, but he certainly looked like one at the moment, huddled under a blanket and shivering as he stared up at his master with those huge, anguished eyes. "What?" Hiko snapped.

"Shishou," Kenshin whispered.

Hiko crouched down so they were on the same level. "What?"

"I...I...I killed..."

Hiko picked up the sakabatou and showed it to him. Kenshin gazed down at it blankly. Hiko gritted his teeth. "Look. No blood. You were fighting an illusion." It was not a lie, but it was not the truth either, and he could tell to his disgust and grudging admiration that the boy knew it.

"Y...You...cleaned it," Kenshin accused.

"It's _your_ sword," Hiko snapped, tossing it back at Kenshin's feet. "_You're_ in charge of taking care of it, not me."

"Shishou," Kenshin whispered, and it was nearly a sob. "I can't run away anymore...I am hitokiri-"

Hiko hit him. Kenshin dropped his head and said nothing. "Don't do this, Kenshin. Don't go there. We don't have time for this. You are needed _now_, you must learn to master your sword _now_."

"The visions are coming again," Kenshin whispered.

Hiko felt his blood chill.

"I...I haven't felt...not since Tomoe-"

Hiko seized his face and forced Kenshin to look into his eyes. "You haven't had your fill of this hokey Force stuff?" he growled. "You claimed that you would never travel that path again. Isn't it the reason why you lost your wife? Isn't that why Katsura Kogorō's most promising student threw away his talents and exiled himself on Tattooine as a _farm boy_?"

Kenshin pulled away and put his face in his hands.

"You are no Jedi," Hiko told him coldly.

"It's Kaoru-hime, this time," Kenshin said, his voice muffled.

Hiko closed his eyes. _'Not again...'_

"Kaoru-hime, Sano, Megumi-dono...they're in pain. I _know_ they are, I can feel it. I-"

"Get ahold of yourself," Hiko growled. "Quit talking like you used to, for one thing. It's not helping."

Kenshin slowly looked up at him again. "Th...This one," he said shakily, "must go, that he must."

Hiko grabbed the blanket and flung it away, then seized Kenshin's shoulder and yanked him to his feet. "No. Leave in your state, and you'll only get yourself killed. Pick up your sword."

Kenshin stared up at him.

_"Pick up the sword!"_

Slowly, Kenshin obeyed.

"And if you can't block me this time, I will hang you up by your thumbs 'til you scream for mercy, so get your freaking act together!"

"H-Hai."

_To be continued..._


	5. Cloud City

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode V - Cloud City** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

Sanosuke, Megumi, Princess Kaoru, and Yahiko disembarked from the _Sagara Falcon_ and then looked blankly around the landing platform in the city where they had decided to take refuge.

"There's no one here," Yahiko commented.

"Yahiko, you're a genius," Sanosuke told him.

"Oh, leave him alone, it's a droid's job to state the obvious," Kaoru said.

"I don't need to be defended by you, busu-hime!"

"What'd you call me?"

Before the princess and the droid could beat each other up too badly, a door on the far end of the landing platform slid open to reveal a decidedly odd-looking collection of humanoid specimens.

"Geez, could you get any fatter?" Yahiko wondered, staring at the chubby hulk in the back.

"Or uglier?" Kaoru said in distaste, eyeing the one who wore a skeletal mask over his face.

Yahiko's eyes flickered mischievously. "Of course you can, Princess - don't you ever look in a mirror?"

As the sounds of combat resumed, the apparent leader of the group nodded and then turned to stride down the platform towards them. He stopped when he was within speaking distance and planted himself before them as if to block their way. "Welcome to Cloud City," he said shortly. "Go away."

"What kind of greeting is that?" Megumi said indignantly. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Shinomori Aoshi," Sanosuke spoke up, glaring darkly. "He's the administrator of this facility."

Everyone looked at him.

"What?" he said defensively. "I _do_ know big words, I just don't use them a lot!"

"For your own good," Aoshi said again, "leave. I won't tell you again."

"We can't leave," Kaoru told him. "The whole reason we're stranded in the first place is because our ship's hyperdrive is broken."

Aoshi shrugged. "Fine. We'll take a look at it. But don't blame me for the consequences." He turned on his heel and marched away. The others gave each other meaningful looks, then trailed down the landing platform after him. They entered the building and walked down a few hallways before Aoshi finally frowned and turned to face them again. "Why are you following me?"

"Because it's in the script?" Kaoru ventured. Megumi elbowed her.

"Who've you got working on my ship?" Sanosuke demanded.

"How should I know?" Aoshi said in annoyance. "I just give orders and they get done."

"Which means either you have loyal and efficient employees," Sanosuke mused, "or a bunch of fangirls catering to your every whim." He pointed an insistent finger. "Which is it, Shinomori? If you let fangirls touch the _Falcon_, I'll never forgive you!"

"'I'll never forgive you'?" Aoshi repeated. "What is this, a shoujo drama?"

"Hey," Kaoru suddenly wondered. "What happened to Yahiko? I thought he was right behind us."

0-0-0-0-0

His baka deshi was fighting like a robot, Hiko observed disgustedly. Blows as hard and movements as efficient as if he was a machine; doubtless he could plow straight through a whole army of average swordsmen. But against a warrior like Enishi? Against Shishio, a Sith master? Hiko shot out a leg, attacking with that rather than with his raised sword, and sure enough, Kenshin went crashing off into the trees - again. For crying out loud...

"Get up," he demanded, striding over to where Kenshin was slumped against a thick trunk. "Pull your brain out of the clouds and stop fighting on autopilot, 'cause if you try that with Enishi you'll not just be a stupid apprentice - you'll also be a dead one."

For a moment Kenshin did not move or speak. Then, slowly but with firm movements, he rose and sheathed his sword. His face was hidden by his bangs...not a good sign. "I'm sorry, Shishou." He walked right past Hiko, heading in the direction of his submerged fighter.

Hiko whirled and stalked after him. "No. Not now, not when we're so close-" He broke off.

Hiko Seijuurou had never learned the ways of the Force. He had not needed to. He had faced masters of both the Jedi and the Sith in battle, and he had prevailed over all. He also had little respect for his idiot apprentice, a frail-looking specimen with an irritating tendency to get distracted.

Yet even Hiko Seijuurou could not stop himself from being at least _somewhat_ impressed when the overly emotional, girly-looking, red-haired shrimp stood straight-backed on the banks of the swamp, one hand calmly raised, seeming to watch with merely casual interest as the huge fighter came lifting out of the murky water. The two men were silent as the fighter glided toward them and came softly to rest on solid ground, propelled by absolutely nothing that Hiko could detect. The effect was pretty creepy.

Kenshin lowered his hand. After a moment he murmured, "Doubtless, such abilities will fade again when Kaoru-hime is safe. For such a goal, however, it is enough." He turned and started packing up his things.

"Kenshin," Hiko growled. "I'm not going to let you leave."

Kenshin paused to give him a cute little smile (_'You don't _really_ want to deal with my passive-aggressive tantrums, do you?'_), then went back to packing. Hiko found himself grinding his teeth together. He had to grudgingly admit to himself that Kenshin, despite everything, was actually pretty cooperative most of the time, and he wasn't sure what he would do if the infuriating redhead suddenly wasn't.

He raised his sword threateningly. "You just _try_ taking one step toward that fighter-"

Kenshin paused again, and looked at him with a grim expression. "Sano is being tortured. Megumi-dono is being tortured. _Kaoru-hime is being tortured._ Shishou, you have never told this one whether you ever loved a woman...but if you have, you would not have been able to hear her screaming like that, and keep silent."

The sword had gone limp in his fingers. Hiko narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip again, and tried one last time. "Kenshin. A long time ago, you dreamed that Himura Tomoe died in childbirth. That you killed her with your own hands. Neither of those are what happened to her in the end." He shook his head. "What was it someone said once? 'Always in motion is the future'? How do you know that your rashness isn't the very thing that makes your vision come true?"

For a while Kenshin said nothing. Then, in a low voice, "Shishou...this one will come back. It is a promise." He raised his eyes to meet his master's squarely. "This one _will_ finish what was started."

Hiko sheathed his sword and deliberately turned his back. "I refuse to cater to your stupid, selfish whims. If you leave now, consider it the end of your training." He did not look to see his baka deshi's reaction.

After a while the sounds of preparation continued, and then the low whine of the fighter started and climbed higher and higher until it was lost in the roar of the engines. The ship rose slowly and soared away, taking the light with it.

"What a waste of time," Hiko murmured disgustedly. He moved to return to his camp, but paused when he saw a new light glowing amidst the trees, approaching with small, dignified steps. "Well?" he called. "Was he dreaming the truth this time? Do you know?"

The ghostly figure halted and looked at him solemnly. "Whether his visions were true or not, he will not be able to help his friends. He is walking into a trap."

Hiko shook his head, unsurprised. "Idiot." Then he eyed his intangible companion. "Why didn't you show up earlier? You could have stopped him."

The figure smiled and raised a pearly hand, looking at it thoughtfully. "No. A woman of flesh and blood has a stronger call on his heart than one he lost long ago." She lifted her eyes again. "To tell the truth...it makes me glad to see that he still has no hesitation in going to save the one he loves. I only wish it would not be at such cost to him."

"Not such a high price as the last time this happened?" Hiko snapped, surprised at the urgency he could hear in his own voice.

"No...no," she assured him. She smiled again. "He was not lying, Hiko-san. He will come back to you. When he does...please. Teach him what he needs to know. I do not wish to watch him die, especially when you could save him."

"Forget it. It was his choice to turn his back on his training, and now he must deal with the consequences." At least, that is what Hiko Seijuurou meant to say. What he found himself saying in actuality was, "I'll think about it." Irritated, he turned away and swept back to his camp, so that he would not have to see her quiet smile.

0-0-0-0-0

The door slid open to allow Princess Kaoru to march into the room. "They haven't found Yahiko yet," she announced. There was no reply from the two other people in the room. "I think he was stolen or something. He's a _droid_; you can't just _lose_ them like you'd lose your car keys or something."

Megumi looked up in annoyance from where she was curled in Sanosuke's lap. "Did I interrupt your make-out session?"

"No," Kaoru admitted, blushing a little. "But you flirt with Kenshin all the time, just to annoy me. Oh yeah," she added, "they fixed the hyperdrive, too."

Sanosuke's face lit up, all irritation swept away by delight as he dumped Megumi off to the side and scrambled to his feet. "They did? Hot dog!" He took two steps and then paused to look at his fuming first mate. "Uh...wanna come with me to check on the _Falcon_, Megumi?"

"No," she said sweetly. "Wouldn't want to get between you and your first love, after all."

"My first...? Hey!"

Just then Aoshi came into the room and dumped a box of Yahiko parts on the table. "I was told this is yours."

"What happened to him?" Kaoru exclaimed in horror.

"Apparently he was so busy gawping at my protocol droid that he didn't see the stairs." He turned and called, "Stop lurking in the doorway and come in here."

A droid resembling Yahiko but more feminine in design clanked in timidly. "I am so, so sorry," it said at once, distress evident even in the mechanical voice. "I really didn't mean for Yahiko-chan to get hurt, honestly I didn't-"

"Stop apologizing, Tsubame," Aoshi said shortly. "It was the YA's own fault."

"Is it just me," Sanosuke wondered, "or are droids these days stretching their human imitation functions way past plausibility?"

"There you go again, using big words!" Kaoru cried. "Stop, Sanosuke - it's really scary!"

"Oh shut up!"

"All of you come eat," Aoshi said abruptly.

They stared at him.

"Somehow," Megumi remarked, "the way you said that sounded really suspicious." She paused. "And it doesn't help that your droid is whimpering apprehensively."

Aoshi shrugged. "Whatever. Darth Enishi will find you one way or the other; it's not like it's my problem either way."

There was a stunned pause.

"Did you say..._Darth Enishi_?" Kaoru whispered.

0-0-0-0-0

"This one has a really bad feeling about this, that he does," Kenshin muttered. His instruments reported that his destination was close, so he punched a button to urge the fighter to top speed.

0-0-0-0-0

Tsubame unlocked the cell and stepped in as quietly as it could, upset that its metal feet clanked so discourteously loud on the floor. The gears in its chest seemed to grind in sympathy when it saw the human woman sitting bowed over with her arms wrapped around herself.

"T...Takani-san?" the droid asked timidly. "I am so sorry...are you feeling too badly?"

Megumi shook her head and wiped at her eyes. "I...no...I'm all right," she mumbled. She knew that what they were doing to Sanosuke was much worse.

"Is there anything I can do?" Tsubame asked in concern.

Megumi swallowed a few times, getting herself back under control, then glanced over at the box where Yahiko lay in pieces. "Well...it would be nice to have Yahiko functional again...there's only so much I know about droid repair work."

"Oh, please leave it to me!" Tsubame cried, desperate to help in any way. It also felt bad for, in a way at least, being responsible that the YA-10 had been broken.

The two of them had only spent a few minutes sorting out the pieces and figuring out how to re-attach them when the door slid open again and a battered figure in white was cast in. Megumi jumped to her feet and hurried over to her captain, leaving Tsubame to continue working.

"Sanosuke," Megumi murmured, kneeling and pulling his head into her lap.

"You all right?" he mumbled, his eyes closed, not bothering to move.

Tears stung her eyes. "Isn't that what I should be asking you?"

"'M fine," he lied under his breath. "Don't stop...that feels good."

She smiled a wavering smile and continued to stroke her fingers comfortingly through his hair.

A few minutes later Kaoru stumbled in, and when the door locked again behind her she made her way shakily over to her friends and sat down next to them, hugging her knees. "I want Kenshin," she said in a small voice.

"I know," Megumi said softly.

"Don't we all," Sanosuke mumbled, disgusted at himself.

The next person to come striding in was Shinomori Aoshi and his motley hangers-on. "You all look horrible."

"I wonder why," Kaoru snarled, struggling to her feet. Megumi cried out as Sanosuke scrambled up and flung himself at Aoshi, only to be brutally knocked back by the muscled giant.

"Enough, Shikijō," Aoshi snapped. "They're injured. Look," he added, turning to the prisoners, "I don't know what's going on here, but-"

"You're Oniwabanshuu!" Kaoru shouted. "Don't tell me you don't know what's going on!"

Aoshi paused. "Fine, I know everything, but-"

"And you cooperated with the second most evil man in the galaxy?" Megumi spat in cold fury.

"Will you all shut up a minute and listen?" Aoshi said irritably. "Enishi wants-"

"Agh!" Startled, everyone looked around to find a limbless Yahiko shifting restlessly in the alarmed-looking Tsubame's arms. "There are Edo troopers here! I've got to warn the others!"

"Thanks, buddy," Sanosuke grumbled.

Aoshi rolled his eyes. "If I don't get to deliver my lines in the next ten seconds, I'm taking a coffee break. Are we okay now, or no?"

Silence greeted him.

"Thank you. Now. Darth Enishi's after that jerk Battousai- I mean, a man I am completely unfamiliar with who goes by the name Himura Kenshin."

"How nice of you to tell us stuff we already know," Kaoru spat.

Aoshi's eyes blazed. "So," he said icily, "you knew that you are being used as bait to lure Battou- Himura here?"

Kaoru gasped, Megumi's eyes widened, and Sanosuke cursed.

"Enishi has ordered that the women be kept here under guard, but the rooster-haired one is being handed over to a bounty hunter."

Megumi put a hand over her face. "Jin-e..."

"Hey! What's with the Rooster-head comment, Gloomy?" Sanosuke put up a fist to ward off the retaliatory movements from Aoshi's guards, but he called them back before they could reach him.

"Take my advice, stop worrying about...Himura...and look to yourselves. What Enishi's got in mind for you isn't pleasant." He turned and stalked out of the room, trailed by his men, long white coat swirling.

There was a moment of silence. Then Kaoru murmured, "'Unpleasant,' he says. Seeing as how we were all just tortured, that doesn't sound encouraging."

0-0-0-0-0

The chamber was dim and filled with steam-emitting machinery. The Kenshingumi were marched in and herded near the center of the room, where a very ominous-looking pit waited. "Why do I get the feeling," Sanosuke remarked, "that I'm going to get the worst of all this?"

Kaoru smiled a wavery smile and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's because you're the hero, Sanosuke. Do your job and spare us females."

"Is that a carbon-freezing machine?" Yahiko wondered. "It looks like a huge magnet."

"Yeah," Sanosuke agreed. "Maybe it's really a torture device for droids."

"What? No way!"

The figure lurking in the shadows made a disgusted sound and flicked his cigarette off into the depths of the steam, to horrified squeals from the carbon-freezing attendants. "Why doesn't it surprise me to find this group yakking away right before they're about to lose one of their number," he muttered under his breath.

"Oi, Saitou scum," Enishi wanted to know, "are you really okay with this? What if the rooster-head dies?" ("Hey!")

Saitou shrugged. "You can't kill him. He's like a cockroach." ("HEY!")

"Well that's no good," Enishi complained. "The whole point of freezing the rooster-head is to test to make sure the process won't kill Battou-" He paused. Then a grin split his lips. "Never mind. Toss him in."

The unfortunate Edo troopers who dutifully approached were suddenly set upon by a screaming whirlwind of feminine fury. Sanosuke's mouth dropped open as he watched his first mate bash in face masks and kick dents into the white armor. Then he grinned. "Go Megumi! Go!"

"Stop, Megumi-san!" Kaoru cried, "You'll get hurt!"

"Don't you dare lay a single hand on my captain!"

"Beautiful," Sanosuke sighed happily. Then he saw the butt of a gun coming down on Megumi's head. He snarled, seized the bag of Yahiko parts, and flung it at the surprised trooper before the weapon could make contact.

"I'll get you for that!" Yahiko yelled from the floor, as a startled Megumi turned to Sanosuke.

"Sano-"

"Megu- HEY!" They had seized her and were locking cuffs around her wrists. "Let her _go_!" he shouted, adding a few colorful words as he set himself upon the stormtroopers. Of course, since his arms were bound he didn't get very far. Someone struck him with what should have been a stunning blow to the head, but he merely turned, snarling and still upright, and lunged recklessly at his attacker.

"Don't you think this is getting out of hand?" Saitou commented, looking bored.

"No way!" Enishi cheered gleefully. "Maybe we should skip the carbon freezing and stick 'em in a gladiator pit instead."

At that moment Sanosuke was knocked into the carbon-freezing chamber by an irate Edo trooper. "Sanosuke!" Kaoru shouted.

"Sanosuke! I love you!" Megumi cried, struggling in the arms of her captors.

"Urk," his voice echoed from the chamber, which was hissing more than ever as the giant magnet-thing began to move, "I think I sprained something...oh, wait, no, that's not what I meant to say!" It was, however, the last thing he said. With horrible noises, the chamber closed completely over him.

"Sanosuke," Megumi whispered, tears flowing down her face. Then she frowned. "_That's_ the last thing you say to the one you love? You didn't even kiss me, you moron!"

When the block of carbonite was raised out, Sanosuke's friends could barely look at him, so horrible was the sight of what might very well have been the last moment of his life, captured in all its raw emotion. Aoshi stepped forward and inspected the readouts. "He's alive," he announced, his tone expressing no opinion one way or the other.

"Can those little blinking lights," Enishi asked urgently, "tell you if anyone could survive that, or if he's only still alive because he's a cockroach?"

"Shut up!" Megumi shouted at him from across the room. "He is not a cockroach! He's a brave man, worth far more than _you_!"

"Remind me to kill her later," Enishi told one of his Edo troopers. "Well, Aoshi?"

"How should I know?" Aoshi said shortly. "This is the first time we've ever used the process on a human being."

"Nrgh," Enishi growled. "Oh well. If Battousai doesn't die, I'll just melt him back again and kill him properly. All right! Get all this trash cleared out and reset the chamber!"

"First a cockroach, now we're trash," Kaoru growled as an Edo trooper pulled at her arm, "I forgot how much I hate this guy."

"Oh, by the way, Aoshi," Enishi said in his most evil voice, "I changed my mind. I'm taking the tanuki girl and the kitsune girl with me."

Aoshi shrugged. "Whatever."

"What? That doesn't cause you distress?"

"Why would it? I barely know them."

"...Oh. Fine then! Be off, all of you - I must prepare for my Ultimate Battle!"

"With Ken-san," Megumi muttered in disgust. "I told him, and he didn't listen..."

0-0-0-0-0

Himura Kenshin made his stealthy way through the seemingly-deserted halls of Cloud City, searching for his friends. He _still_ had a really bad feeling about this, but it couldn't be helped. "Kaoru-hime...Sano, Megumi-dono, please hold on..."

He suddenly ducked out of sight as a man whose hair resembled a bamboo curtain walked by, followed by a floating block of carbonite guided by a couple of stormtroopers. When they had passed, Kenshin ventured out, only to be suddenly attacked. The moment their blades clashed, Kenshin gasped - he knew this sword. He knew this man- Startled, looking up into cold eyes, Kenshin nearly screamed at coming face-to-face with a flesh and blood ghost from his bloody past.

"NO!" Their swords rasped apart and Kenshin hurled himself at Saitou Hajime, hacking at him in a haze of fury, feeling his eyes burn gold as the faces of dead children came to his memory.

"Kenshin!"

Her voice tore him free from the past, even as Saitou's blade came slashing down. Kenshin only just barely blocked it, and was slammed aside into a wall.

"I don't have time to play with you at the moment," Saitou said calmly - and sheathed his blade. "Just stay out of my way." He beckoned to the bewildered-looking Edo troopers, who hurriedly resumed pushing the weird block of carbonite after him.

Kenshin, torn between an old enemy in one direction and a new love in the other, hovered for a moment in panicked indecision.

"Kenshin! Get out of here! _It's a trap_!"

The children were long dead. He could do nothing for them, attacking Saitou would not atone for their deaths - it was Princess Kaoru who needed him now.

Kenshin reeled around and flew in the direction of Kaoru's desperate voice, dashing right past confused Edo troopers with only one goal in mind: Kaoru. He had to save Kaoru.

The door swooshed shut over their faces, Kaoru's and Megumi's strained and frightened, the man with them cold and appraising. Kenshin roared and slashed at the door, taking several seconds to remember that he had Hiten Mitsurugi-ryuu to rely on now. The door finally burst apart - only to reveal an empty corridor beyond.

Growling, Kenshin stepped inside, all his senses sharpened to the utmost. Something felt wrong...

He emerged into a dim chamber filled with steam-emitting machinery. At the center of the room, a very ominous-looking pit waited-

"The Force is with you again, Himura...but you are a Jedi no longer."

Gritting his teeth, Kenshin turned to face Darth Enishi, saying nothing, though his sword was at the ready.

Enishi grinned. "Now didn't that line sound very cool when I said it?"

"No," Kenshin said shortly. "Where is Kaoru-hime?"

"I ate her."

Kenshin blinked. "What?"

"Just kidding! Actually that Aoshi person is about to rescue her, but who cares. I'm going to kill you, Battousai!"

Something was wrong, something was wrong...if Kaoru was going to be rescued, if she would be safe, why was he here...?

Had Hiko been right?

Kenshin shook his head violently. "Let this one see her, and Megumi-dono and the others."

"Didn't you just hear me?" Enishi snapped. "I said I'm going to kill you! Your eyes are supposed to turn yellow and you attack me, you're not supposed to just sit there and whine some more about Kako-hime this and Koru-hime that!"

Kenshin sheathed his sword for battoujutsu.

"Now that's more like it," Enishi said gleefully, holding his weapon at a strange angle.

Kenshin frowned. "Wait a minute. If you're a Sith lord, how come you use a steel sword instead of a lightsaber?"

"Are you kidding?" Enishi scoffed. "Lightsabers don't make blood. I like blood. Especially yours. Now come at me already!"

"But...we have to wait for a pin to drop or a bead of sweat to fall-"

"Grr! No! I wanna fight _now_!" and so they did.

0-0-0-0-0

Kaoru and Megumi, freed from the handcuffs, stared with their mouths hanging open slightly as Aoshi and his oddball goons wiped the floor with the Edo troopers escorting them to Darth Enishi's ship. Then Aoshi turned to them and nodded coldly. "There. We saved you. Now let's get going to Tattooine."

"What?" Kaoru said in confusion, "Why Tattooine?"

"Does it matter?" he said impatiently. There was something there he wanted back, and rather badly, though he still refused to admit to himself how much. "Let's just get going before we have to make our way to your ship through a blaze of crossfire."

"No," Megumi said determinedly. "We're getting Sanosuke first."

"Believe me, he'll be long gone by the time you can get there-" Aoshi sighed as he watched the women running off, trailing a protesting bag of droid parts. Even Tsubame was clanking after them as fast as it could, calling the YA-10's name in distress. "Figures..." He turned to the Oniwabanshuu. "Make your way to Tattooine while I handle these idiots. I'll have the final plans worked out by the time we're able to meet up again."

"Yes, sir," the men agreed, and all went their separate ways.

Sure enough, Kaoru, Megumi, Aoshi, and the two droids arrived at the landing platform just in time to watch Saitou's ship taking off. Megumi yelled furiously and blasted at it, to no avail of course. Then, just as Aoshi predicted, they ran on again through a blaze of crossfire, desperate to get to the _Sagara Falcon_.

0-0-0-0-0

For Kenshin, battling Enishi was a very frustrating experience. He had grown too used to being a master of his weapon in the old days, and afterwards had gone too long without fighting anyone, except Hiko, who even came close to his skill level. Now, however, having to fight a skilled Sith lord with a sakabatou instead of a lightsaber... As if that wasn't bad enough, he found that he no longer had access to the Force. The flow was gone, and anything he gestured at was unresponsive, his powers dormant again now that he knew Kaoru was probably safe.

Cursing silently, Kenshin blocked and then tried for an immediate attack - and somehow found himself flying back into the carbon freezing chamber instead.

"All too easy," Enishi's voice echoed above him, followed by an ominous click just barely audible through the hissing of the machines. "Now I'm kind of hoping you _do_ survive...I wanna beat you up some more before I kill you! ...Wait a minute...then why don't I just-"

Kenshin, who had been in the process of climbing out of the steam-choked chamber, gasped when Enishi's hand seized the front of his clothes and hauled him violently up. Nose to nose, they glared at each other and thought angry thoughts.

"Why don't I just skip the whole freezing thing and beat you up for sure?" Enishi mused. "Yes, that's a much better plan...that Aoshi scum tried to trick me into killing you too fast, I will get him for that. Prepare to get bloody, Battousai!"

"You're the one who should prepare," Kenshin snarled. He kicked against the inside wall of the chamber and vaulted up and around, twisting free of Enishi's hold and landing cat-like behind him.

Enishi grinned and rose, turning as he did so. "Not bad," he purred. "Of course you don't have a weapon anymore."

Kenshin punched him.

Howling, Enishi toppled over the edge of the platform, giving Kenshin time to scramble for his sakabatou. "That felt really good, that it did," he muttered under his breath in satisfaction. Then he leapt down after his opponent, only to find that he was alone. "Oro?" Frowning, he tried to sense out Enishi's ken-ki, and realized that the dark lord had moved. Kenshin hesitated. Should he follow the obvious lure and pursue Darth Enishi, or go back and try to find Kaoru?

"Come on, I'm getting bored here!" a voice shouted from the shadows.

Kenshin sighed. "Coming, coming..." he grumbled.

Finding himself standing before an invitingly large window, Kenshin turned to find Darth Enishi stalking up to him, weapon at the ready. It was not the sword which attacked first, however. Kenshin, hearing the noise as a piece of machinery behind him was wrenched off the wall, whirled and raised his sword in defense. The chunk of sparking metal crashed right into him and knocked him into the floor. "Ow..._ow_..."

_'You can't slash things in half anymore,'_ he reminded himself in exasperation, _'not unless you reverse the blade - you _have_ a blade now, not a rod of light! Don't forget!'_ He climbed to his feet just in time to face another flying chunk of machinery, which he dispatched correctly this time. Things were going well until the conveniently large window reached its limit, at which point glass shattered and Kenshin was drawn backwards by the sudden howling rush of air. He was about to jam his sword into the floor to halt his progress, but Enishi chose that moment to kick him, and Kenshin went flying out the window to land painfully on the catwalk outside.

"Ororo..."

0-0-0-0-0

"Tsubame-chan, you're wonderful!"

Droids could not blush, but Tsubame's eyes were glowing a pleased, embarrassed pink as it was glomped by an impressed and delighted princess. "Th-Thank you, Kamiya-hime."

"It's Kaoru," she laughed. "You don't have to be so formal, Tsubame-chan!"

As the women and the droids hurried out onto the landing platform, the security code on the door having been deactivated by Tsubame's prowess, Aoshi finished the evacuation announcement and hurried after them (amidst the obligatory blaze of crossfire, of course). Everyone scrambled to get to the cockpit, leaving poor grumbling Yahiko in the capable hands of a concerned Tsubame. Megumi threw herself into a seat and said crisply to Aoshi, "Hands off my ship, _if_ you don't mind."

"Forgive me for trying to save us some time," he murmured, scowling as he leaned back after he had finished programming Tattooine's coordinates as their destination.

"Can you fly this without Sanosuke?" Kaoru asked worriedly.

Megumi sniffed. "Please. He'd never have lasted an hour in this thing without me."

They had lifted off and were soaring away through the clouds when Kaoru suddenly stiffened. "Wait - wait! We forgot Kenshin!"

"So?" Aoshi said. "He's Battousai, he can take care of himself. Besides, he must have flown here in some sort of ship, he can leave in that."

"No! No!" Kaoru shouted. "Megumi! GO BACK AND SAVE KENSHIN!"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" the beautiful first mate of the _Sagara Falcon_ pointed out.

Kaoru looked outside again and realized that they had turned around and were heading back for Cloud City. "Oh. Uh...thanks."

0-0-0-0-0

Sparks flew every time their swords made contact. Kenshin's battle fury was raging, but Enishi was a total monster. They hacked and slashed at each other at crazy speeds, flitting around on the catwalk like deadly dragonflies. Kenshin had far more experience than Enishi, but unfortunately for him, he was at a disadvantage from his incomplete training in his new sword style, and from languishing for years on Tattooine while Enishi had only grown stronger in the interim.

Their blades rang together one last time, and then fire shot up Kenshin's arm as his right hand was hacked clean off his body. He cried out in surprise and pain and clutched his arm close to himself, watching in astonished horror as his sakabatou went sailing down into the abyss below, never to be seen again. "No..." Fire again, this time in his face. Kenshin instinctively threw himself backwards and stumbled down, gasping as he raised a hand to his left cheek. Blood was pouring down his neck, making his palm slick as he touched the cuts-

Two of them. In the shape of a cross.

Kenshin's eyes widened. A cross-shaped... His disbelieving gaze shot up to the dark lord, who loomed over him. "Enishi," he whispered.

Enishi did not attack - with his sword. Instead he slowly lifted his hands and raised the mask away from his face, looking down at his enemy in grim expectation. "Seen this face before, Himura?" he said quietly.

"Yukishiro!" Kenshin screamed. Then, agonizingly blinded by ghosts of the past, "Tomoe!" He was kicked hard in the head and lay still, wanting to die.

"Don't you dare say my sister's name," Enishi snarled at him. "You have no right to say her name, you _murderer_!" He flung himself to his knees and grabbed the front of Kenshin's clothes again, pulling back his other hand so that the tip of his sword hovered just before the stunned warrior's face. "Die."

It was no fun to kill someone was just _lay_ there, not even trying to fight or resist. Enishi frowned, then lowered his sword and let go so that Kenshin flopped back, the cuts on his face bleeding steadily. Tears were leaking down to mingle with the blood, and the sight of them made Enishi sick. With a howl, he lunged back to his feet and kicked at Kenshin, who rolled away and right off the catwalk, into the abyss after his lost sakabatou.

He fell. He fell for a long time, and then something struck him hard; he wondered if it was the ground. He thought he might have blacked out, but when he blinked and realized he was conscious, he found himself hanging just below Cloud City, his remaining hand clutching the rigging that had caught him. "You should let go," he told it. The guilt was like worms, gnawing at his heart and trying to totally consume him. He couldn't fight it. Death waited just below, waited for him to let go.

So he did, and found himself still hanging, now upside-down, still gripping with his legs. Tears and blood were leaking into his hair. He touched the wounds on his face and thought of Tomoe and of all the other dead ones who reached up for him, trying to lay hold of him and drag him down to be at their mercy forever. "To...moe..."

The rushing of the wind was growing louder. Kenshin stared up at the underside of the floating city, trying to make his legs relax. It was like his body was trying to not die against his will.

"So which is it, Battousai?"

Uncomprehending, Kenshin looked down and saw the _Sagara Falcon_ hovering below him, a grim-faced man staring up at him, waiting.

"Make your choice soon. There are enemies nearby...and that annoying princess will be charging up here herself if she has to wait too long."

The princess...Kaoru. Kaoru. Kenshin lifted his hand to cover his face, struck to the heart. _'Tomoe...I've betrayed you.'_ He could see her face in his mind, gazing at him, unsmiling. He couldn't bear that expression, so he looked down at the man again and made his choice, sick at heart. "Help me," he whispered.

0-0-0-0-0

_"I've got him. Let's go."_

As Megumi urged the ship back into motion, Kaoru sprang to her feet and ran to meet Aoshi in the corridor, who unceremoniously dumped Kenshin into her arms and strode back to the cockpit.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru cried, seeing his blood-drenched face and the way he was nursing one arm close to himself. "Ken-" She had reached for the injured arm, and was shocked to see that the entire hand was just - _gone_. The stump was smoking slightly...severed wires were visible within the exposed wrist. Kaoru lifted her eyes to his. "You're a...cyborg?" she said in bewilderment.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, as if it was his fault. His eyes were filled with so much pain, as if he could barely see her.

"No, no, it's all right, Kenshin," she quickly assured him. "Come on, you've got to lie down, let me find Tsubame so she can tend to you..." She got him settled, but he still seemed shell-shocked, the slashes on his face glaring luridly, his eyes blank. "Kenshin," she whispered, "please."

"Kaoru-hime...I'm sorry," he murmured.

"For what? You didn't do anything, Kenshin! What's wrong?" she cried. He pulled her close with his good arm and held her, but didn't answer. "Kenshin..."

Yahiko came awkwardly through the corridor, only partially re-assembled. "Oi Tsubame, you gonna finish with me yet-? Kenshin!"

It was rather disconcerting the way Kenshin stared at the droid for several seconds before recognition stole into his face. "Oh...Yahiko."

"What happened to you?"

"Uh...an Ultimate Battle with Darth Enishi?" Kenshin mumbled sheepishly.

"You look even worse than when we rescued you from the snow monster."

"Sorry..."

"Stop that!" Kaoru said in annoyance, wriggling free and knocking him (gently) on the head. "Stop apologizing for everything, Kenshin! It's not your fault."

"Everything is this one's fault," he said dully, so she hit him for real. "Oro! That hurt-"

"Stop being so _stupid_!" she shouted. "What, you're taking responsibility for the empire, and Darth Enishi, and-?" She broke off when she saw from the expression on his face that he was. "BAKA!"

In the cockpit, Aoshi frowned and cocked an ear to the violent sounds coming from outside. "Isn't it customary to _refrain_ from further injuring people who are already injured?"

"It's Kenshin and Kaoru," Megumi said with a straight face. "The normal rules don't apply." She flipped a speech to activate the ship's comms. "Everyone, prepare for lightspeed!"

0-0-0-0-0

Later, on a medical ship belonging to the rebels, Kaoru watched as the final adjustments were made to Kenshin's new prosthetic hand. He dutifully submitted to the pain reaction tests and moved this fingers this way and that to ensure that the hand was working as fully well as a real one would. Then he just sat there.

"Kenshin," Kaoru said softly.

He didn't look at her. In fact, it seemed like he had been going out of his way to avoid her gaze ever since Aoshi had dragged him in from Cloud City. "Princess..."

Kaoru hesitated, then reached to touch the new scars on his face, scars which he had refused to have treated. They did not seem to be healing well... At her touch, he winced but did not pull away.

Kaoru frowned. _'Masochist.'_ "Kenshin," she said aloud, "what's wrong? It's not like you to be so depressed after losing a battle-" Actually, it was not at all like him to lose a battle, period. She swallowed. "Megumi and the others have already left...don't worry, we'll get Sanosuke back, and everything will be okay."

"Princess," he said softly. "This one-"

"My name's Kaoru!" she shouted. "Kaoru! Not 'Princess'! And _look_ at me, before I chop all your stupid bangs off!"

Startled, he emerged from the safe haven of his bangs and glanced up at her. He was aghast to find tears in her eyes. "Kaoru-hime...I'm sorry."

She burst into tears, whirling away and plopping down to sit next to him.

He looked at her heaving back and hesitated, then lifted a hand and placed it on her shoulder. He had to think a while before coming up with something that wasn't an apology. "Kaoru-hime, maybe it's better if...if we don't..."

She stopped crying, her body tensing as she realized what he was trying to say. She turned back to him and gripped his shoulders hard. "Don't you dare," she hissed, "tell me to stop loving you. Because it's too late - I can't, and I don't _want_ to."

"This one does not deserve you," he whispered.

"Stop that!" She started shaking him as hard as she could, until he had whimpered enough 'Oro's to reassure her a little. "Stop hiding from me! Either _tell_ me what's wrong, or at least lock it up again and come back to me!" She nearly cried again from relief as his arms came around her, holding her tightly.

"Kaoru-hime." His voice was fierce now. "You will live."

"Okay," she agreed cautiously. "You will too, right?" She pulled away a little so she could look at him, and was relieved to see him finally smiling - though it was a hard smile. His eyes were hard too, taking in every line of her, his gaze covering her just as tightly as his arms had.

"It won't happen again...you will be protected, and you will live."

"If I live," she said pointedly, "I want to be happy. I will _not_ be happy if I lose you."

He hugged her again. "Then this one will not be lost," he murmured.

She smiled, finally satisfied. "Good."

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: The Saitou in this chapter didn't kill any kids (he wouldn't do that in canon). Let's leave it at that for now.


	6. The Horrible Pit of Doom

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode VI - The Horrible Pit of Doom** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

_Sagara Sanosuke has been captured and handed over to the crime lord Jin-e. His friends stealthily make their way to Tattooine in a crazy plan to rescue him, but their temporary allies, the Oniwabanshuu, have not revealed why they are willing to help. Kenshin has abandoned his training in Hiten Mitsurugi-ryuu and the ghosts of his pasts are awakening. Meanwhile, Emperor Shishio comes ever closer to unleashing more evil on the galaxy and on a certain little redhead..._

0-0-0

"What?" Darth Enishi yelped. "Are you _serious_? It's _back_?" He paused a moment. Then he burst into evil laughter and quickly contacted the emperor. "Oi, Shishio! You'll never guess what just happened!"

0-0-0-0-0

On the hot sandy surface of Tattooine, two gleaming protocol droids were making their way to the squat stone palace in the distance. "You think this stupid plan will work?" one of them spoke up.

"Um, well," the other one answered timidly, "Princess Kaoru thought of it, so..."

"We're toast," its companion finished, sounding resigned.

"I-I didn't say that!"

"Heheh. You were thinking it, come on."

"I...I am not programmed to second-guess humans."

"No," the first droid said suddenly. "Don't hide behind your programming, Tsubame. Humans aren't any better than us!"

"Yahiko..."

The YA-10's hand clanked on the TS unit's shoulder. "Believe," it said strongly. "You're not just a machine, and you know it. You're worth just as much as a human girl!"

"You...you say very nice things, Yahiko," Tsubame finally whispered.

Presently they arrived at the massive front door, where they were admitted after only a little hassle. Yahiko lifted its head in disgust as they passed by gross-looking things, both alive and not. It was rather pleased when Tsubame huddled close, even though their proximity made them stumble at times. When they were shown into the dim, crowded throne room, they found Jin-e perched on a dais, opposite a block of carbonite hanging on the wall as if it was a decoration.

Jin-e frowned when the two droids presented themselves before him. "What is all this?"

"Hi," Yahiko said. "We have a message for you, jerk."

"Oh please, Yahiko," Tsubame squeaked. "Don't make him angry! He has scary eyes..."

Jin-e laughed, apparently pleased at inspiring fear even in a robot. "Well, go on."

"The message is from Himura Kenshin," Yahiko said importantly. "He's the second-best warrior in the galaxy, and he's taking Sanosuke back, one way or another. So you can cooperate and release the captain, or you're in for a world of hurt."

"Yahiko, please! He didn't say it like that," Tsubame begged, but it was too late.

Jin-e was laughing. "Himura Kenshin, eh? Don't they call him Battousai or some such thing? How I'd _love_ to cross blades with him..." Grinning, the crime lord raised his sword to his mouth and licked it in anticipation. "You're on, Battousai! Oi, someone get my new droids fitted out."

"_Your_ new droids?" Tsubame cried in horror.

"You can't do that!" Yahiko shouted, but no amount of resistance prevented it and Tsubame from being dragged away and separated. "Tsubame! TSUBAME!"

"Yahiko!" The TS-10's voice faded down the passage.

Yahiko made a snarling noise and tried to bash his captors with metal arms, but his movement was limited and they soon overpowered him. Soon enough he found himself back in Jin-e's audience chamber, seething under the restraining bolt they had fixed to him. "I can't believe this...whaddaya need an interpreter for anyway? You speak Japanese _and_ English!"

Jin-e waved his arm irritably at the upstart droid. "Then go serve drinks or something before I have you disintegrated." He turned away and seemed more interested in inspecting his weapons than in watching the dancing girls cavorting in the center of the floor. For a while the hall was noise and music as usual, until there was a commotion in the passageway outside. An imperious figure came sweeping through the ranks of curious alien scum, covered from head to foot in clothing and dragging a prisoner alongside. The bounty hunter planted himself before Jin-e and announced in a crackling, mechanically-distorted voice, "How much will you give me for her?"

Jin-e surveyed the flushed, supremely annoyed-looking prisoner, who was chained around the neck and tugging uncomfortably at the artful scraps which did little to preserve her modesty.

"I don't need another dancing girl...especially an ugly one like this."

"What?" shrieked the girl. "Who're you calling ugly, you ogre!" She choked as the bounty hunter rattled the chain warningly.

"Dancing's not all she's good for."

"What? What?" the girl said urgently.

"Hm. Can she fight?" Jin-e asked sarcastically, clearly expecting a negative answer.

"Of course she can. She's a multi-purpose sex-slave."

"A multi-purpose _what_?" the girl growled, then gasped as Jin-e threw a sword at her, instinctively raising her hands to catch it.

"Let's test her out, then."

The bounty hunter shrugged and let go of the chain, backing up to join the rest of the cheering alien scum. "Come on, Kaoru!" Yahiko yelled enthusiastically, "You can do it!"

"Urk..." Princess Kamiya Kaoru stared at her approaching adversary in alarm, then glanced around in a panic, only very slightly reassured by the sight of Aoshi and the rest of the disguised Oniwabanshuu lurking nearby. "Uh...g-give me a bokutou or a shinai at least! I'm not used to this thing!"

0-0-0-0-0

That night, the bounty hunter made his stealthy way through the dark, silent audience chamber, intent on reaching the block of carbonite on the wall. For the moment he paused, gazing at the frozen figure of Captain Sagara Sanosuke in the moment before his forced hibernation. Then the graceful figure moved forward and touched the controls, lowering the carbonite to the floor and activating the thawing process. The carbonite glowed red and slowly began to melt away, until nothing held Sanosuke upright. He fell forward and thudded hard to the floor, where he lay senseless until the bounty hunter cautiously reached to pull him back up.

"You c...couldn't've caught me, jerk?" Sanosuke mumbled, shivering in the sudden feel of air against his skin and cringing away from the bounty hunter's touch.

"Rude as ever, I see. That's a good sign," the bounty hunter said wryly, supporting his shoulders and gently smoothing his hair, which was slick with moisture and surprisingly long now that it wasn't sticking up in its customary spikes.

"Who th-the heck are you?" Sanosuke growled, completely blind and hearing only the suspicious-sounding, unfamiliar voice.

The bounty hunter carefully pulled off his mask and revealed himself to actually be a her. "You were totally setting me up for a mushy line, weren't you."

Though his eyes remained vacant, his lips cracked into a smile. "You better believe it. Humor me."

Takani Megumi responded with a kiss rather than with words, but they were allowed only a brief moment of intimacy before ominous laughter began echoing through the air. Sanosuke sighed and dropped his head for a moment on Megumi's shoulder. "Don't tell me. We're in Jin-e's lair and he's caught us and we're about to be thrown into a horrible pit of doom."

"What a good guesser you are, sweetie," Megumi sighed. She helped him to his feet, and together they turned to face Jin-e and his accompanying alien scum as they stepped out from concealment.

"Hate to break up this touching scene," Jin-e said sweetly, "but a few more seconds and you would've had me throwing up. Well? Come on, Sagara. Beg for mercy and offer me money."

"Oh, please spare us," Sanosuke mumbled in a monotone. "How's a billion dollars sound. Or yen or gil or credits or whatever you use here."

"Not good enough," Jin-e chortled, playing along spitefully. "Get this scum out of my sight and lock 'em up!"

"Hey!" Kaoru protested from where she was chained to the dais. "You're not gonna make Megumi a sex slave, too? That's not fair!"

"Cheer up, Kaoru-san," Megumi called as she and Sanosuke were dragged away. "At least you'll be able to give Ken-san an eyeful when he shows up."

Kaoru gasped, and curled up in a failed attempt to cover herself. "Kenshin! Oh, I can_not_ let him see me like this!"

"Like what?"

"ACK!" Kaoru shrieked, and all the other alien scum sprang away in surprise to find a little red-haired man in their midst. Kaoru stared at him. "Why are you wearing magenta robes?"

"Oro..." Kenshin tugged uncomfortably at his cloak. "Black gives this one bad memories, that it does."

"Oh." After a moment, Kaoru's face reddened. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Th-This one isn't staring," he said nervously, wrenching his gaze away from Kaoru's exposed flesh to Jin-e's evil smile. "So." Kenshin cleared his throat, which did nothing to cool the heat in his face. "Jin-e. This one sees that you have not agreed to cooperate."

"Of course not," Jin-e purred. "I'd _much_ rather test your blade and see if you live up to your legend."

Kenshin went cold. "This one," he said stiffly, "has no legend to live up to."

"You know, Battousai," Jin-e said casually, "I've heard that you're a wimpy little Meiji pansy now...but that something's _different_ about you when this little kitten is in danger." He tugged sharply on the chain around Kaoru's neck, and she coughed painfully before shooting her best glare at him.

Kenshin had stepped forward and laid a hand on his sword hilt, eyes blazing. "Let her go, Jin-e," he said in a deadly voice. "Kaoru-hime, Sano, Megumi-dono, and the droids. This one is not leaving without them, that he is not."

Jin-e paused thoughtfully. "Yes, I think it'll work nicely, throwing you all into the horrible pit of doom," he laughed. "Kill two birds with one stone, shall I? Pay back that rooster-head and his vixen, and get your eyes to change color at the same time. I must say, Battousai, I am _really_ looking forward to fighting you - when you're worth fighting."

"Kenshin can mop the floor with you any day, moron!" Yahiko shouted helpfully.

Jin-e make a scornful sound. "It's the hitokiri I want, not this sorry excuse for a warrior I see before me. I could beat little Himura Kenshin in a cigarette's time. In fact, I bet even my new pet could beat Himura Kenshin. Let's try it, shall we?" And with that, Jin-e hit a switch and sent Kenshin tumbling down into the pit that had suddenly opened up under his feet. Kenshin landed upright and glanced up at the shouting, jeering crowd above him, all but a handful of them thirsty to watch his death. What kind of beast would they pit him against? Perhaps a fearsome one to test his strength-

"Monster Bird Kick of Rage!"

"Oro?" Kenshin went flying, unable to draw against the opponent he found when he whirled around. "They expect this one to fight a _child_?" he gasped as he sat up again, staring.

"I am no child!" the girl announced, posing cutely with her fists full of small daggers and her long braid whipping gracefully around her. "I am Makimachi Misao, warrior of the Oniwabanshuu! Prepare yourself!"

Groaning, Kenshin clapped a hand over his eyes in exasperation. "So _this_ is why Aoshi seemed so eager to come here..."

"Aoshi-sama?" Misao dropped her antagonistic pose and grabbed the front of Kenshin's clothes, shaking him. "Where is he? Where is Aoshi-sama?"

"O-o-ro-ro," Kenshin chattered as his head wobbled back and forth with the force of her shaking.

"Yah!" the alien scum cheered from above. "Die, Battousai!"

"M-Misa-o-do-no," Kenshin tried to say, and collapsed backwards, swirly-eyed, when she finally let go of him.

"Talk, you!"

"A...Aoshi is...uh..." Kenshin very well couldn't give away the okashira, hidden somewhere among the enemies above. "Close, that he is," he finally admitted.

"He is? I knew it! He came to rescue me!" Misao clasped her hands under her chin and went dreamy-eyed, smiling hugely. "Oh Aoshi-sama, I knew you would come for me!"

Jin-e's voice called, "This is getting sickening. Get them out of there, and drag Sagara and the vixen back, too. I _will_ turn you back into the manslayer you truly are, Battousai!"

0-0-0-0-0

The suns of Tattooine gleamed on the sand dunes as Jin-e's sail barge and its smaller accompanying craft soared on their way to the horrible pit. Kaoru clung to the window and stared out at Kenshin in the vehicle with the other prisoners, wondering how her plan could have gone so wrong and why Kenshin looked so good in handcuffs.

Elsewhere on the sail barge, Yahiko was marching around furiously and didn't see the droid serving drinks until they had crashed into each other. "Watch where you're go-" he started to snap, then blinked his eyes in amazement. "Tsubame!"

"Yahiko!" the other droid cried gladly, and put its arms around the YA-10 in an awkward, clunky droid hug.

"Tsu-Tsubame...not _here_," Yahiko mumbled in embarrassment, pulling free. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yes," the other droid said worriedly, "but the princess and the others..."

"It's okay," Yahiko said reassuringly. "Kenshin's here, he'll fix everything. You just be ready, all right?"

"All right," Tsubame agreed.

They had reached the horrible pit of doom.

"It has a mouth," Sanosuke said in disbelief. "The pit has a freaking _mouth_ - with teeth and everything!"

"I thought you were blind," Megumi said.

"Was I? Ah, whatever."

"Jin-e!" Kenshin shouted. "This is your last chance. Free us now!"

"Nope," was the smug answer.

Kenshin nodded, then stepped onto the small platform overlooking the pit of doom.

"Now where do you think you're going, Battousai?" Jin-e jeered from the sail barge.

Kenshin looked up in confusion, and his eyes widened when he saw Kaoru being dragged to the edge of the sail barge. They meant to- "JIN-E!"

"Fight me," Jin-e called, eyes gleaming. "Fight me, Battousai - or I'll kill your woman."

"You scum!" Sanosuke shouted, and Jin-e had to push away the incensed protocol droid that had launched itself at him.

"JIN-E!" Kenshin screamed in a rage. He reached out without looking to catch the sakabatou as Aoshi threw it at him. He leaped at the sail barge as if he had wings and sensed the Oniwabanshuu around him, howling war cries and setting upon the alien scum that had held their treasure hostage. Kenshin and Jin-e had eyes only for each other; Kaoru had scrambled free, splashed with the blood of her captors as their Oniwabanshuu murderers surged on throughout the barge.

"Kenshin!" she shouted, then found herself obliged to defend against random alien scum that decided she looked interesting to attack. Kaoru bashed at them with a broken table leg and struggled through the madness, trying to get to Kenshin.

"Princess!"

"Yahiko," she said in relief when she saw the two droids hurrying up to her. "Here, get this chain off me, we've got to get to Kenshin before he kills Jin-e!"

"Why? I wouldn't mind seeing Jin-e dead... Oh, all right, all right," Yahiko amended hurriedly at the sight of her glare.

Meanwhile, on the prison craft, Sanosuke and Megumi were staring expectantly at Aoshi. "No," he said flatly. "I am _not_ falling overboard to have my life threatened by a horrible pit of doom. I'm too cool for that."

"Fine then. I'll push you," Megumi offered impatiently, and did so.

"Megumi!" Sanosuke exclaimed, a little awed. "You just pushed Shinomori Aoshi!"

"Well, _you_ wouldn't have been allowed to do it."

He laughed, slipping his arms comfortably around her waist. "I love you," he said affectionately. "So, should we save him now, or wait 'til he yells for help?"

"He'd rather die than yell for help," she pointed out, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Kiss me first, then we'll save him."

"Don't bother," said a cold voice behind them, and they turned to find a sandy, furious-looking Aoshi glaring at them. "If you weren't a female, I'd kill you."

"Hey, don't make death threats against my woman," Sanosuke growled.

"Speaking of cool guys dying," Megumi said suddenly, "where's Saitou?" They all looked around to find the bounty hunter lounging against the railing, smoking a cigarette as he watched Kenshin and Jin-e's battle on the sail barge.

"Oh, sorry, was that my cue?" he murmured carelessly.

"It was, actually," Sanosuke said sweetly. "You want us to light some flames, Saitou, make your fake death more comfy?"

"Why are you here, anyway?" Megumi wanted to know. "Why are you after Sanosuke?"

"Why would I be interested in a weakling rooster-head?" Saitou said disdainfully. "He was just bait to get me close to Jin-e. That Shinsengumi wannabe needs to die, but..." He shrugged. "Looks like Battousai is taking care of it for me."

Megumi gasped. "Sanosuke! We can't let Kenshin kill him! That would go against his vow!"

"Oh yeah!" They hurriedly looked around for a way to get to the sail barge, but then they saw that Kenshin was actually running away from the fight so he could hug Kaoru. Jin-e's cry of injured outrage echoed among the laser blasts, sword-clashing and battle cries.

"You stood me up! Jerk! I hate you, Battousai!" And with that, Jin-e drew his wakizashi and plunged it into his own chest, saving everyone the trouble.

Saitou tossed his cigarette butt over the railing, where it was eaten by the horrible pit of doom. "Well, that wraps up that case. I'm off to cause horror and mayhem in the prequels."

"Shut up, we're not supposed to know about those yet, except from the overdone ominous foreshadowing," Sanosuke said.

"Whatever."

In the end, the sail barge blew up, the good guys were saved, and the Oniwabanshuu sailed away with their prize. "Bye, Himura!" Misao shouted, waving. "Thanks so much!" Then she turned and threw herself happily into the arms of her Aoshi-sama. Kenshin and the others headed off in the opposite direction, Kenshin to resume unfinished business on Dagobah and his friends back to the Meiji Alliance headquarters to make further plans against the evil empire.

_"Hey Kenshin...thanks,"_ Sanosuke's voice came over the commlink.

Kenshin smiled. "Sorry, Sano. Next time you can rescue this one, and we'll be even."

_"Kenshin...hurry back, okay?"_

"I will, Kaoru-dono," he promised. There was an awkward pause, when they couldn't quite bring themselves to declare undying love in the presence of the others, and then he smiled, blushing, to hear Yahiko's robotic whine in uncanny imitation of their voices.

_"'I love you, Kenshin!' 'This one will be thinking of you the whole time, Kaoru-hime, that he will!' 'Oh, don't do that Kenshin, then you won't be able to concentrate on training!' 'You're right, Kaoru-hime, that you are. Then this one will not think of you at all, except in naughty dreams!'"_

_"Oh, knock it off, Yahiko!"_ Kaoru cried in embarrassment, and the commlink fizzled into silence.

0-0-0-0-0

The small shuttle came to a landing, its arrival greeted by legions of stormtroopers and by Darth Enishi. The emperor himself disembarked, surveying his surroundings appraisingly, his lover dangling from one arm.

"Your boobs are showing again," Darth Enishi said.

"Shut up!" Yumi cried angrily, tugging up her collar yet again.

"Enishi, stop staring at her cleavage," Shishio said calmly. "And Yumi, find a better brand of costume tape. We've come here-"

"Costume tape?" Enishi said interestedly. "There _is_ such a thing?"

"Enishi," Shishio said meaningfully. "My purpose in coming here."

Enishi waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, so you can exude vibes of ultimate evil throughout the entire station and wipe out the Rebellion, whatever. Can I go kill Battousai now? Somehow he survived being dumped out of a floating city."

"No," Shishio said. "And take your hand off your sword, he's coming to _you_, Enishi. No need to go looking for him."

"He's coming? He's even stupider than I hoped!"

"Yes," Shishio agreed. "And yet annoyingly stubborn as well. It might take both of us to turn him back to the Dark Side of the Force." He paused as Enishi kept blathering on, something about how he couldn't decide which kind of horrible death would be most fun to subject Battousai to. Shishio sighed. "Or not."

0-0-0-0-0

"Shishou, this one has returned to finish his training. Please teach the final secret of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryuu!"

"No way."

"...What?"

"You heard me, baka deshi! I cannot _believe_ you, arrogant enough to waltz away on the first whim and then come whining back here for the final secret! _No!_ Get out of my sight!"

"But you have to teach it! This one cannot win against Darth Enishi without it!"

"Then die and good riddance, you stupid little brat!"

"He'll take over the galaxy and Kaoru-hime will die and- and they'll hunt _you_ down, Shishou!"

"Heh. They can try."

"You are unbelievable!"

"And you think you're any better?"

For quite a while, small creatures hid themselves and the forests of Dagobah rang with the thunderous clash of steel on steel, as master and apprentice attempted to beat each other into bloody pulps. Luckily for their fans, neither were entirely successful, and finally came to a furious, panting halt when the sound of their growling stomachs had become louder than the sounds of their battle.

"Forget you," Hiko finally snapped. "I'm going to eat. Stay out here and sulk. I hope it rains on you." He turned away in a majestic swirl of white cape and marched into his little hut, slamming the door. Kenshin was left outside, seething until he finally calmed down enough to look for his own rations.

Night fell, and the stubbornness persisted. In the morning, Kenshin broke and went to grovel, but Hiko remained unmoved even by the Big Blue Puppy Eyes Look. Eventually it degenerated into another fight, by the end of which Kenshin was black and blue all over but still standing, and Hiko was flirting with the idea of locking him up in the Cave of Evil with no sake.

"Shishou," Kenshin finally said, "is it because this one hurt your feelings by leaving? I'm sorry. Truly."

"Don't be an _idiot_!" Hiko snarled. "It's because you proved yourself a reckless, disobedient moron who isn't worth teaching!"

"But," Kenshin said slowly, "if you were to withhold the final secret, this one will die when he faces Enishi again, and all the time and effort you spent training him will be wasted, that it will. Do you really want that, when you could prevent it?"

Hiko was scowling, because _she_ had shown up again, hovering behind the oblivious Kenshin with a horrible, searing, _"Please don't disappoint me"_ look on her face.

"Fine," he grumbled at her. Only then did she smile, and bow, and disappear.

"F...Fine?" Kenshin repeated incredulously. "You mean-"

Hiko smacked him, venting his feelings. "I assume," he said coldly, "that turning you into the second-greatest swordsman of all time won't turn out the same as when you used to be the most powerful Jedi of all time."

"Of course not!" Kenshin gasped, one hand raised to his aching head. "How could you even _ask_ that?"

Hiko shrugged unrepentantly. "You're pretty unstable. Just wanted to make sure - not like I can go by anything _you_ say."

"This one will drive this sword into his own heart before letting the past repeat itself," Kenshin spat.

"That's nice - though rather counter-productive to learning the secret. Now. Don't move even a hair. If you do, you'll die, simple as that..."

0-0-0-0-0

Late that night, Kenshin sat slumped on a fallen tree. He was sunk so deeply in his thoughts that he did not notice the ghostly figure approaching until she was sitting down beside him. He gasped and sprang to his feet. "T-Tomoe!"

She looked up at him. "Hello." After a long time, when it became obvious that he was at a loss, she said quietly, "You seem upset. Is your training not going well?"

He raked his hands through his hair and paced once or twice, then plopped down beside her with a sigh. "This one doesn't know...what is missing. This one would give his life to protect others, and yet somehow it's not enough to learn the final secret of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryuu..." He suddenly shuddered. "This one might die tomorrow," he whispered.

After a long silence she laid her hand gently on his knee. "Does that bother you?"

He suddenly looked up at her, stricken. "If...this one dies...will we be together again?" he whispered.

"Mm. Perhaps," she said, looking closely at him. When he squeezed his eyes shut and looked away, she nodded to herself. "You don't seem very happy at the prospect."

"Tomoe," he whispered.

He did not say any more, and after a while she said gently, "I am glad, more than you know, that love for her ties you so strongly to this life."

He looked at her again, astonished. "Tomoe...you already know?"

She laid her head on his shoulder for a moment, their hands clasped. "I've watched you," she said softly. "All throughout your exile, I watched you bury your heart, and I so wished I could help you. Dear one...I am so sorry. It is beyond my power to help you now."

"No," he said fiercely, "No. _I'm_ the one who should be begging for your forgiveness-"

"Stop." She raised her head and met his eyes. "You are blaming yourself too harshly. You are taking on burdens which you do not have the strength to bear. Dear one...if you still desire to throw away your life when you face Hiko Seijuurou again, you will die. Without you, Shishio Makoto will crush those who fight for good, including your friends. Including her."

His fingers tightened on hers. "That will not be allowed."

"...I'm glad." After a while she reached to brush her hand against the scars on his face. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "He hurt you because of me."

Gently, he raised his hand to her face as well and traced his thumb down the identical scars on her left cheek. "It is an honor, Tomoe."

She closed her eyes. "Please live," she whispered.

"I will," he promised her.

She nodded. Then she rose and walked away, her pearly form fading from sight before she reached the trees.

0-0-0-0-0

The next morning, Kenshin, armed with a new sense of value on his own life, learned the Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki and nearly killed his master in the process. "Shishou!"

"Urk...well done...bye, Kenshin," Hiko gasped out, then collapsed.

"NO!" Kenshin grabbed Hiko and shook him. "You can't die! You can't!"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Hiko said irritably. "Leave me alone, baka deshi."

"No! This one will _make_ you live!" Kenshin cried wildly, heaving him up.

"Oh for crying out loud, I can't even have a decent death scene without your whining... Fine, I'll live. Now go away."

"You will?" Kenshin said hopefully.

"Yes, now _go_. The plot is waiting on you."

"Okay." Kenshin backed warily away towards his fighter, staring at Hiko as if making sure he wasn't going to keel over the minute Kenshin turned his back. "You're all right, really?"

"Get out of here, before I belt you with a Hiryuusen."

"Okay." Kenshin nodded happily and scampered back to rejoin the Meiji Alliance.

Once there, he called for a meeting and then walked nervously forward to address the assembled soldiers, drawing in a deep breath. "This one has an announcement," he began. He closed his eyes in apprehension, then opened them again and went on, his voice sounding stronger than his actual resolve. "Uh...perhaps some of you remember the, uh, Death Star."

There was a surge of angry mumbling, which died away as they all stared at him tensely.

"If you recall, the Death Star disappeared. Instead of blowing up." Kenshin shifted uncomfortably. "Well, this is why." With no further ado he launched into an explanation, after which he was mobbed by furious rebels and nearly drawn and quartered. It took all his skill to escape, even _with_ the help of his incredulous friends.

"You _time-traveled_ it?" Sanosuke howled when they had locked themselves safely in a hidden storage compartment. "You didn't blow it up?"

"Kenshin, you IDIOT!" Yahiko raged, forgetting it was supposed to be a respectful droid.

"It was _gone_," Kaoru added angrily, "and now it's just popped back into existence, ready to slaughter more planets?"

"That will not happen again, that it won't," he asserted. "This one refused to be the cause of death back then; it was the only alternative. At this time, the Alliance is now better equipped to handle the Death Star, and this one has finally mastered Hiten Mitsurugi-ryuu..." He stopped, because he noticed that no one was listening, so he sighed and prepared to get beaten up.

Afterwards, when the Meiji Alliance had calmed down and sullenly gathered again to come up with counter-measures against this renewed threat, Kenshin thought it best to skulk in the back with his friends and keep quiet. Seeing as how he was the central protagonist, such efforts were futile of course.

"So," the commander huffed, "General Shinomori will lead the space forces-"

"What?" Kaoru whispered in surprise, and looked around in astonishment to find that Oniwabanshuu members were scattered throughout the Alliance in disguises that were pretty obvious, now that she noticed. "How did _they_ end up joining us?"

"Information-gathering opportunity?" Megumi guessed.

"Or else they just hate the Empire as much as we do," Sanosuke suggested.

Kenshin, noticing that Misao was enthusiastically waving at him across the room, raised his hand in acknowledgement and gave her a weak smile. At least _someone_ had decided not to hold the survival of thousands of people against him.

"-and General Sagara will be in charge of the Endor expedition to de-activate the Death Star's shields," the commander continued. He jabbed an accusing finger at Kenshin. "And _you_, Himura, will go with him to help clean up your mess."

"Hai," Kenshin agreed.

Kaoru nudged him. "Weren't you planning to sneak off and duel Darth Enishi in a climactic battle?" she whispered.

"He doesn't need to know that," Kenshin replied comfortably. "This one has full confidence in your ability to succeed on Endor."

"If all the whispering in the back is _quite_ finished," the commander said angrily, "I will conclude the briefing. Once the Death Star's shields are down, some of the space fighters will fly in and _blow up_ the Death Star from the inside. As in, make it explode into lots and lots of little tiny pieces. NOT activate a piece of legendary technology to send it to the future for us to deal with _yet again_."

"Understood, sir!" came a chorus of agreement. Many eyes slid challengingly to Kenshin, who only blinked and smiled unnervingly.

"Oh yeah," the commander added as an afterthought. "Emperor Shishio's going to be on the Death Star when we attack, so if we succeed, the Empire will be dead. Long live the Republic!"

"Long live the Republic!" was the answering roar.

0-0-0-0-0

Later, in one of the busy docking bays, Aoshi and Sanosuke were glaring at each other. "I need the _Falcon_," Aoshi said once again through gritted teeth. "It's just going to be sitting here gathering dust otherwise. You can't sally into Endor with a wanted ship."

"She's _my_ ship," Sanosuke growled back. "I won't have you touching her!"

"Aoshi-sama!" Misao bounced up to them and hugged her hero, who responded as a rock would have. "What's the hold-up? We're supposed to be prepping to leave!"

"You're staying here, Misao," Aoshi said shortly.

"Whaaat?"

"The battle's going to be dangerous - we're going against the Death Star," he reminded her, as if she needed to be reminded. "There's a high chance that most of our forces won't survive. Of the ones that do, you are going to be one of them, and the best chance of that is if you stay here."

"But I want to be with _you_," she insisted.

"If I don't get your sincere promise that you won't try to follow us, I'll tie you up before we leave," he threatened.

"I'm Oniwabanshuu!" she asserted. "I can escape from _any_ bondage!"

"Not mine."

She giggled and threw her arms around him again. "Not that I'd want to be free from _yours_," she flirted, and was rewarded by the faintest tinge of pink on the otherwise expressionless face.

"Misao, you're staying here, and that's final."

"Okay," she agreed.

Aoshi looked at her. "Which means you plan to wave us cheerfully off and then sneak aboard before we're gone."

She smiled. "You know me too well, Aoshi-sama. So you know that no matter how hard you try to leave me behind, I'll always follow. Will you take me with you under your protection, or will you leave me to fend for myself in your footprints?"

Sanosuke was staring at them, looking back and forth from the frustrated okashira to the innocent young girl, unashamedly vulnerable in her love. He couldn't stand it. "Oh, just take the ship," he snarled, and marched away, red-faced.

0-0-0-0-0

"Yay, we made it," Kaoru cheered when they had reached the surface of the forest moon.

"Only because Enishi let us," Kenshin said dolefully.

Sanosuke slung a heavy arm around him. "Now don't get mopey. We'll do our job and you'll do yours, so don't worry about it."

Kenshin smiled at the confidence in his friend's voice. "Yes."

The strike team soon came upon a couple of Edo troopers in the forest. Sanosuke and Megumi moved in to deal with them, not realizing that there were two more nearby. Kaoru immediately chased after them on a speeder, followed at once by Kenshin. "I can handle them!" Kaoru called over the noise of their insane travel speed.

"Th-This one is certain you can, Kaoru-hime," he lied, trying not to think too much about the fact that, since they were on the same speeder, Kaoru was out of necessity practically in his lap. "Quick, jam their commlinks." Kaoru did so, and pulled up alongside one of their quarry so that Kenshin was able to jump over and deal with the trooper himself.

Now that they each had a vehicle, they were quickly separated, especially when two more stormtroopers joined the chase as well. Kenshin was able to neutralize three of them, though he lost his speeder in the process, leaving him to make his way back to the strike team on foot and hope that Kaoru was all right.

Kaoru, meanwhile, was thrown off her speeder and passed out just after watching her antagonist crash into a tree. "Moron," she mumbled, and then everything went black. When she awoke, she was being poked by a huge teddy bear.

Her eyes flew open and she shot upright, causing the creature to jump back and growl nervously. "Uh...you're kind of creepy," Kaoru remarked. Then she smiled. "But also pretty cute. Hey, you want a cookie?" Pretty soon she and the Ewok were friends, but they had only had a few minutes to get to know each other before the Ewok suddenly scrambled to hide in a panic. Kaoru was still looking after it in confusion when she was nearly killed by more Edo troopers, who were in turn defeated by the Ewok's Deadly Cuteness of Doom.

"Thanks," Kaoru said gratefully. "Can you help me find my friends now?"

The Ewok agreed enthusiastically, now convinced that Kaoru must be good if she was an enemy of the dreaded White Rock Men. Unfortunately, its idea of finding friends was not the same one Kaoru had in mind.

0-0-0-0-0

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE DIDN'T COME BACK?"

Sanosuke's eyes widened, and he became aware that he was backing away from the coldly raging monster his red-haired friend had become. "Uh...well, the two of you zipped off on speeders, and now you're here, and the Princess, uh...is still on the way back?"

Kenshin whirled and stalked off into the trees, presumably to hunt for his missing princess. Sanosuke hurriedly sent the rest of the strike team on ahead and followed, with Megumi and the droids on his heels. They found debris from several wrecked speeders and Kaoru's discarded helmet, and also a suspiciously-displayed dead animal that Megumi refused to touch.

"Aw come on, Megumi," Sanosuke wheedled. "Don't you want to be caught up in a big net, all pressed up against me in an intimate manner we couldn't achieve under normal circumstances at this point in our relationship?"

"Stop using big words before your brain melts," Megumi snapped, turning red.

Kenshin sighed and obligingly picked up the dead animal, then tried, a few seconds later, to pretend that he hadn't heard Megumi mumble, "Sanosuke...your knee is sticking into my crotch."

"Yeah, well, your boobs are pressing against-"

"Sano," Kenshin called very loudly, "do you think you can reach the sakabatou so we can get out of this net?"

"Sure," Sanosuke said easily. "Too bad your sword can't cut anything. Oh well, guess we'll be stuck here for a loooong time...not that Megumi minds."

"Shut up!" she cried, and shifted violently. That happened to be the exact moment that the ever-helpful Tsubame finished cutting through the closest fibers, and they all came tumbling back to the ground, only to find themselves surrounded by large, armed teddy bears.

"Can I hit a few of them?" Sanosuke begged. "_Please_? They're scaring me!"

"How can you say that? They're so cute!" Megumi exclaimed, and hugged one of them. Terrified, it wriggled away and brandished its spear at her, growling.

"Not very friendly, though," Yahiko remarked.

At the sight of the two golden droids, the Ewoks gasped in awe and began a worshipful chant, bowing respectfully.

"Yahiko?" Tsubame asked timidly. "Why are they calling us the Mighty Golden Ones From Above?"

"Because they think we're gods," Yahiko answered gleefully. "This is great! _Finally_ I'm the main attraction for once, instead of the comic-relief sidekick!"

"It's not funny!" Sanosuke yelled in a panic, and would have fled if Kenshin hadn't dove to catch him.

"Sano! Just bear with it for a few more scenes. They will take us to Kaoru-hime!"

"You're not supposed to know that," Megumi hissed, then paused and shrugged. "Never mind. You've developed a sixth sense when it comes to Kaoru-san, haven't you." Kenshin only grinned sheepishly.

Sometime later, both the captives and the Mighty Golden Ones From Above were dragged against their will into the heart of Ewok territory, where Sanosuke was promptly readied to become the main course in the night's meal. "Why is it always ME?" he shrieked.

"Because Kenshin uses up most of his screen time angsting," Yahiko called, "and I'm not old enough, and all the others are girls."

"Sorry," Kenshin offered.

"Shut up, you! Yahiko, tell the loony teddy bears to let us go!"

Yahiko and Tsubame chattered at the Ewoks in their language, but the only effect it seemed to have was to cause a scramble for more wood to stack up beneath Sanosuke.

"Tsubame!" Yahiko cried. "Why'd you tell them that?"

_"Tell them what?"_ Sanosuke bellowed.

"What?" Tsubame said in confusion. "I thought I said that we didn't want to eat food. We're droids, we don't need it."

"You said 'I don't want to use pine wood.' 'Pine' is _kajamon_, 'food' is _kamamon_."

"Oh no!" Tsubame cried. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's too bad Sanosuke can't use the futae no kiwami with his head or something," Megumi observed. "With his hands tied up like that, it might be difficult getting loose..." She looked over at Kenshin. "So, do you have a plan? Are you going to levitate something and scare the Ewoks into compliance?"

Kenshin looked blank. "Oro...this one forgot."

Just then, Kaoru came storming out of one of the huts, her hair wafting loose around her shoulders and her camouflage outfit exchanged for a flowing dress that exposed a fair amount of leg. Kenshin's mouth dropped open - these days it was taking less and less for her to attract his notice.

"Hey!" the princess was shouting. "Those are my friends! Let them go right now, or I'll...uh...run you ragged with chores 'til you can't even stand up!"

Even if her words were not understood, the power behind them was, and the terrified Ewoks scampered to obey. Kenshin dropped lightly to his feet and rubbed at his aching wrists, watching to make sure that the others were released before making his way to Kaoru. "Are you all right, Kaoru-hime?"

"I'm fine. How about you?" she asked, taking his chafed wrists and gently massaging them. The feel of her hands touching him like that made him lose his train of thought.

"...Oro, this one is fine," he finally managed breathlessly. "Sano is probably pretty angry, though-"

The rest of his words were choked off as a furious starship captain wrapped an arm around his throat and snarled, "'Just bear with it for a few more scenes,' huh?"

That night, as Yahiko and Tsubame told the Ewoks an animated summary of their adventures, the humans watched from the edges of the room, basking in the warmth of the fire and of true love. Kenshin and Kaoru had been sitting with clasped hands; Sanosuke's arms were around Megumi until he was suddenly mobbed by a crowd of affectionate Ewoks. "Agh, Megumi! Help, get 'em off me!"

"Aw, but they _love_ you, Sanosuke!" Megumi laughed.

"They're creepy little rats! Why are they only after _me_?"

"Because Tsubame just told them about the carbonite," Kaoru explained, giggling at the sight of Sanosuke flailing amidst the short, cute creatures. "Didn't you hear the sound effects?" As she turned to Kenshin to share this mirth, she noticed that his eyes were far away, his thoughts withdrawn. She frowned. "Kenshin?"

His expression flickered, and he smiled at her inquiringly.

"Are you all right?"

"Mm...yes," he said after a moment.

"You better be," Yahiko called, "'cause you're now a part of the tribe. Rejoice. Oh, and they said they'll give back our weapons and help us take out the shield generator." Now not just Sanosuke, but the other three were glomped by delighted, chattering Ewoks, which they submitted to good-naturedly.

Kenshin, however, managed to extract himself sooner than the others, and only Kaoru noticed when he slipped away outside. Frowning, she made her excuses to the Ewoks and followed him. She found him standing on one of the bridges between the huts, resting his arms on the railing as he gazed out into the night.

"Kenshin," she said softly.

He dropped his head at the sound of her voice, but by the time she had come up to him, he was smiling again as he straightened. "Apologies, Kaoru-hime. This one just..." He took a deep breath. "This one must go to face Enishi," he said softly.

"That's why you came with us in the first place," she acknowledged unhappily. "Kenshin..." She was too shy to voice what she wanted, but he knew anyway, and wrapped her in his embrace. "Kenshin," she murmured, closing her eyes in contentment.

He held her close, savoring the feel of her in his arms, thinking to himself that _this_ was what he must fight for now, this present warmth. "Kaoru-hime," he whispered.

She pulled her head away and looked at him. "Your voice is scary again," she said warningly.

He smiled wanly and raised a hand to carefully stroke back her hair. "Kaoru-hime...there is something that...this one has needed to tell you...for a long time." He took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Do you think...you would be ready to listen?"

She regarded him gravely. "You have to leave now. I know you have to leave...and I know there's always a possibility you won't come back." She took his face in her hands and looked at him hard. "But I don't care. I _know_ you're coming back. I believe in you, Kenshin. So...whatever you want to say - they won't be your last words to me. All right?"

He nodded, then slowly let go of her and went back to the railing. It was a long moment before he spoke again. "Kaoru-hime...this one was born on Tattooine, but he has not always lived there. He was trained as a Jedi knight, and has worked for the emperor in the past. There is a reason why he wields only sakabatou...his hands are stained with blood from that time. And..." He raised his head, but was unable to look at her. "...he once had a wife, and was the cause of her death."

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: If you've seen the _Back to the Future_ movies, you will know that a flux capacitor is what makes time travel possible. So Kenshin activated it back in the first arc and sent the Death Star to the future, which would now be the present. :p


	7. The Slave Boy

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode VII - The Slave Boy (ROUGH DRAFT)

Author's Notes: **Previously posted chapters have been combined, so please be careful when navigating.** (Also, if the site won't let you review "again"...would you mind terribly sending me a private message or e-mail instead? *hopeful smile*)

So, I had writer's block. I'd finished the _entire fic's_ draft except for the last quarter of the "Revenge of the Sith" arc. (Now I know what got me stuck - Enishi, while in berserk battle mode, decided to attack Shishio instead of allying with him, and that ground this story to a complete halt for a _year and a half_. Thanks, Enishi. Thanks so much.)

However, I finally managed to get re-inspired (details at the end of the chapter), and now **this fic's draft is complete (also, all the mistakes I could find have been fixed) and I GUARANTEE that it will be updated on a weekly basis, barring catastrophe in real life**. So, please enjoy, and Tomoe haters...guess I'll see you in seven weeks? o.O Six, if you want to watch her die.

0-0-0

_Hiko Seijuurou was not this one's first master, that he was not. Nor was Uncle Oibore his first family._

0-0-0

"Shinta! Shinta you lazy bum, get in here, we have customers!"

A child who looked much younger than his nine years came running breathlessly into the shop, where he found his two masters welcoming a group of people inside. There were two men, a girl, and a young boy. The more impressive man stood apart, a white cloak swirling around his large, muscular build as he swept the shop with imperious eyes.

The others seemed to be together - a robed kind-faced man with a neat appearance, the girl standing quietly and watching through dark eyes that perceived much and gave away nothing. Despite the long scar on her left cheek, she was the most chillingly beautiful creature young Shinta had ever seen. The other boy shuffled close to her, with dark unruly hair and a mixed expression of boredom and hostility.

The man in the white cloak seemed vaguely familiar, but the others were total strangers. Shinta had trouble keeping his eyes politely down - strangers were not welcomed in these parts, but he found them fascinating.

"Shinta," Kihei snapped, "Mr. Hiko and Mr. Katsura here need two T-14 hyperdrive generators. Go out back and get them."

Shinta blinked in confusion. "But Master, isn't there only-?"

"Go, you lazy boy!" Gohei thundered. Shinta bowed and hurried to obey.

It was a while before he came back, clutching a generator tightly, his face pale. "Master," he said, in such a low voice that it was difficult to hear. "I...I could only find one."

"Lazy _and_ stupid, aren't you," Gohei snarled gleefully, and smacked him on the side of the head.

Kihei sniffed in disgust. "It's because you organized them poorly and lost one of them in the mess, didn't you. I swear, you're so clumsy sometimes I think I ought to sell you off-"

Katsura now spoke for the first time, his voice quiet and authoritative. "It does not become men to refuse to admit that they lack what is needed, and then blame it on a child and a slave."

Hiko sniffed in contemptuous agreement.

Gohei growled and laid his hand on his weapon, as his smaller but older brother's face flushed. "If you have a problem with the way I run my shop, you can look for the parts you need somewhere else."

"But, Master, no other shop has a hyperdrive generator with that model number," Shinta said before he could think better of it, and noticed Hiko giving him an annoyed look.

"Is this true?" Katsura questioned the shopkeepers.

"Yeah," Gohei answered belligerently.

Katsura sighed. "Well, it won't hurt to take a look at it."

"You forget you're in competition," Hiko said warningly. "From a local, no less. You really up to this, Outlander?"

"Why would a local need such a part?" Katsura returned. "It seems unusual that anyone here would have a pressing reason to repair a spaceship."

"And you do?" Hiko said meaningfully.

Obviously unwilling to reveal anymore, Katsura smiled a little and looked back at Kihei. "How are such situations usually resolved here?"

"You're not gonna at least look at the thing?" Hiko said. "For all we know, it's a piece of junk. Come on, Shopkeeper, at least let us take a look at the goods." He swept the generator up out of the slave boy's hands, and was beset upon by the indignant Hiruma brothers, whom he easily fended off. The scuffle continued until all four of the adults had passed beyond hearing, into the yard in the back.

Shinta found himself alone with the girl, who was gazing around the shop with an unreadable expression, and the boy, who was poking at the half-repaired droids in one corner. Hardly daring to breathe, desperate to watch without being noticed, Shinta sat very still on the counter and did not make a sound as he took in every detail of the strangers. When the girl finally turned and walked over to him, his eyes widened. She had been aware of him the whole time.

She came up beside him and stopped. "Hello," she said. Her voice was quiet and calm.

"Hello," he whispered.

After a moment of silence, during which he squirmed uncomfortably, she said, "Your name is Shinta, isn't it."

"Yes."

She smiled a little. "I'm Tomoe."

He smiled shyly back. "I'm...very glad to meet you."

She studied him thoughtfully, and he looked away, wondering if he had said something wrong. "You've worked here for a long time, haven't you."

"As long as I can remember," he confessed. "They say my parents died of illness, and I was sold to pay off their debts."

"Slavery is spoken of so matter-of-factly here," she murmured, "even though it is supposed to be an outlawed practice..."

He blinked at her in surprise. "It is?"

The look she gave him in response startled him, stricken and compassionate. She reached out and rested her hand gently on his head. "You are meant to be free, young one," she said softly. The words stirred something in him, but before he could sort out his feelings, they both jumped at the sound of a violent clatter. The spiky-haired boy had been busy, and was now yelping as he backed away from a destructive droid he had activated.

"Yukishiro," Tomoe said sharply. "Master Katsura told you not to touch anything."

"He's not my boss," the boy growled, swinging ineffectually at the droid.

"Ah...perhaps you ought to try hitting it on the nose," Shinta suggested humbly.

"Shut up! I don't need help from a _slave_," Yukishiro spat.

Shinta, unbothered, had heard much worse, but he was just wondering if he should deactivate the droid himself and possibly anger the boy further, when Tomoe's lips tightened. She stepped forward and tapped the droid smartly on the round protuberance on its face, watching as it compacted itself again with a snap and dropped harmlessly to the ground.

Then she raised her head and fixed the boy with a truly intimidating glare. "Yukishiro," she said, very quietly, in a voice that made both boys shiver. "You must respect the property of others. It does not become you to tinker with someone else's things, or to speak rudely to one who cannot fight back. Since Shinta is a human being and deserves to be respected as one, I expect you to apologize."

Shinta closed his eyes, knowing she had gone too far, knowing that no one would submit to such a humiliation - but to his shock, he heard a grudging, "Sorry," fall from the boy's lips. His eyes flew open to find Yukishiro glaring at him. Shinta quickly ducked his head in acknowledgement, knowing better than to try to smile.

The back door flew open again, with such a loud crash that Shinta jumped and had instinctively ducked behind Tomoe before he realized what he was doing. To his surprise, she took a casual step so that she blocked him completely from view. For the first time he caught a sweet scent from her clothes...the smell of white plums, faint under the more ordinary smell of dust and sweat, but still very detectable.

"Where is that boy?" Kihei barked. "Shinta!"

Shinta edged nervously out from behind Tomoe. "Yes, Master?"

"Come here and let these people look at you, then go out and prep the pod. You're racing tomorrow."

Shinta's eyes widened, but he only nodded and came obediently over to stand before the men.

"This child can compete in such races? How old is he?" Katsura asked doubtfully.

"Twelve years old," Kihei offered. "He's a runt for his age."

Shinta quickly closed his gaping mouth.

"How old are you, Shinta?" Katsura asked, earning a glare from the Hiruma brothers.

Shinta gulped and stammered, glancing nervously at his masters. "T-Twelve, sir."

There was a pause. Then Katsura said, with a smile, "Nine years old, eh? I see."

Shinta backed up a step in horror, and it took the rest of his willpower to keep himself from fleeing completely. Could the man read his mind? He jumped when he felt someone behind him, but when he frantically craned his head up to look, he saw that it was Tomoe. He relaxed a little, grateful to have her protective presence so close.

"He looks too small even for nine," Hiko muttered.

"Such a thing would not matter, if he truly can race," Katsura said.

"The only human who can," Kihei boasted, for the first time showing a spark of pride in his young slave.

"I think that's the first thing I've heard from your mouth that isn't a lie," Hiko said, frowning thoughtfully. "What _I_ want to know is if he can win. I've seen you race, boy. You ever manage to finish any of the competitions I _wasn't_ at?"

Terrified, Shinta only just managed to whisper, "I-I'll try my best, sir."

Hiko snorted. "Fine," he said to Kihei. "I'll agree, as long as I'm betting against. Only way I'm gonna win that generator."

"I'll take that bet," Katsura said easily. The others stared at him in surprise.

Shinta shivered. He knew he was a good pilot, his ability to compete in the pod races at all an extraordinary achievement in itself. However, like Hiko Seijuurou had stated, he had never managed to finish a race. He was not looking forward to the look on this man's face when he was disappointed.

The visitors soon left, and at a look from his masters, Shinta quickly scampered outside to work on the pod. It was a little difficult to keep his mind on the work, since he found his thoughts returning again and again to the strangers and especially to Tomoe and her rare kindness; yet soon enough the rhythm of the work took over, and Shinta became fully absorbed. That is, until he realized that one of the worn-out parts needing replacement was not in stock.

Sighing, since he knew how the Hirumas would react to having to spend money on something like this, Shinta apprehensively went back to the shop to ask about it, and was finally granted some credits, after being yelled at and smacked a bit. Grateful that he had been given the money at all, Shinta quickly ran out of the shop as soon as he was able and relished the relative freedom of the open air and sandy streets.

After purchasing the part he needed, Shinta took a furtive glance around and then trotted on, taking the opportunity to visit some of the merchants he had become friendly with over the years. They were glad to see the sweet little boy, and one of the older women affectionately gave him a treat before patting his head and thanking him for coming to see her.

Shinta continued on his way, nibbling happily, only slowing when an interesting sight caught his eye. It was the boy who had been in the shop earlier, Yukishiro. He looked like he had picked a fight with an alien without knowing what he was getting into. Shinta did not even pause to think before hurrying to defuse the situation.

_"Pardon me, sir,"_ Shinta said quickly in the alien's own tongue. _"I beg you to excuse the Outlander, he is not aware of our customs."_

_"Is he?"_ the alien sneered in the same language of clicks and growls. _"I thought common courtesy was customary on all planets. You'd do well to save your kindness for a worthier subject, young Shinta."_

_"Y-Yes, sir,"_ Shinta stammered, a little flustered. The alien slid off, grumbling, though not without pausing to give the boy a pat on the head.

"What do you want?" Yukishiro spat. "Come to stick your nose in business where it doesn't belong?"

"Bulseba didn't mean any harm," Shinta said placatingly, wishing he didn't sound so apologetic.

"Yeah? Well, I _did_, and if you gotta problem with that, say it to my face, loser!"

Shinta hurriedly backed up a step. "I didn't mean...it's just that-"

"Yuki? Shinta?"

Both boys whirled to find Tomoe approaching.

"Ne- I mean, Tomoe," Yukishiro said gladly. "I'm sick of it here, let's go back to the ship."

"You insisted on coming," she quietly. "We must wait for Master Katsura to conclude his business before we return."

Yukishiro scuffed his foot in the sand disgustedly, but offered no further argument.

"Um...excuse me," Shinta said cautiously. "I don't mean to annoy you, but it looks like there's a sandstorm coming in. Do you have shelter?"

"Our ship is outside the city," Tomoe said. "Do you think we would have time to make it before the storm hits?"

"No way," Shinta said decisively, before remembering to school his tone. "If you don't mind, the three of you could come and wait out the storm at our house," he offered more politely.

Tomoe smiled a little at the hopeful look in his eyes. "That sounds like a wise move to me. If Master Katsura has no objections, we will take you up on your offer, Shinta-kun."

The gritty wind was already rising by the time they all made it to one of the nondescript little doors that Shinta called home. He keyed in the security code and called as he entered, "Sakura-neesan, Akane-neesan, Kasumi-neesan! I'm home - and we have guests."

Three young women came into the tiny common room, where Katsura, Tomoe, and Yukishiro stood in an awkwardly dignified huddle behind the little redhead. "Shinta-chan!" one of the girls exclaimed. "I'm so glad you made it before the storm hit!"

"Who are these people, Shinta-chan?" another asked, surveying the Outlanders closely.

Shinta respectfully introduced them, watching everyone's reactions as he did so. His foster sisters seemed uneasy but perfectly polite. Yukishiro looked disgusted with the cramped, sparse suites (no surprise there), but Tomoe seemed as calm and inscrutable as ever, and Katsura's greeting and brief explanation of their business on Tattooine had a friendly tone.

"Can they stay for dinner?" Shinta asked anxiously.

Sakura smiled and placed an affectionate hand on his head. "Of course. If they are your friends, Shinta-chan, then they are welcome."

Shinta smiled in relief and gratitude. "Thank you. I promise they won't be any trouble. Ah..." Suddenly realizing that that might have sounded rude, he glanced fearfully over his shoulder, but Katsura only smiled and bowed a little in acquiescence, and Tomoe's expression had not changed.

"Tomoe-san," Shinta asked shyly, "would you like to come see my droid?"

"You have a droid?" Yukishiro said in disbelief. "A little beggar like you?" He yelped when Tomoe laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I made her," Shinta explained, wincing as he sensed his sisters glaring at the other boy.

"How extraordinary," Tomoe murmured. "I would be honored to see this droid you have made, Shinta-kun." Shinta happily led the two of them to his bedroom, which was so small that his guests had to stand out in the little hall; there was only room for one person.

Tsubame had slid into a lopsided angle some time during the day. Shinta carefully straightened it and then switched it on. "Ah...oh," she said in her soft mechanical voice. "Master Shinta, you've returned."

"Tsubame, I told you not to call me that," he exclaimed, glancing at his guests in embarrassment.

"Oh," the droid exclaimed. "Forgive me, Shinta-san." Its glowing eyes turned to the fascinated siblings in the doorway. "Oh dear, we have guests, and I am afraid I am not very presentable..."

"It's all right, Tsubame-chan," Tomoe said compassionately, glancing over the exposed wiring of the droid's body. "Even incomplete, you are still a very beautiful creation."

"What the heck? She's ugly," Yukishiro snorted. "She _is_ pretty cool, though," he added magnanimously, squeezing Shinta out of the room so that he could poke and prod interestedly at the droid. "Does she have any lasers or hidden weapons? Can you make her fight or race?"

The poor droid was making tiny beeping noises of surprise and distress, and Shinta's eyes were wide.

"Yukishiro," Tomoe said firmly, "Tsubame-chan is obviously not a battle droid, her purposes are more refined. Come out here and give her room to move."

Yukishiro soon lost interest in the droid, which seemed to be much more suited to household duties than swashbuckling, but Tomoe and Shinta found themselves happily occupied until Sakura had to call them to dinner twice. Shinta tumbled sheepishly into his seat at the table with Tomoe and Tsubame following behind more gracefully.

"The droid's gonna eat?" Yukishiro said in disbelief as he set down a steaming bowl of rice.

"She likes to practice her table manners, even if she can't actually eat," Shinta explained. "She's a protocol droid, you know." Taking in the sight of Yukishiro in an apron, he opened his mouth to ask incredulously if one of his sisters had actually gotten the other boy to help with dinner, but then decided that silence would be wiser.

Tomoe apparently had no qualms. "I'm proud of you, Yuki," she murmured with a little smile, "that you offered to help our hosts."

"Wha- Hey! No, I, uh, I didn't offer!" Yukishiro stammered furiously, ripping off the apron so violently that it tore. His face had turned an interesting crimson color.

"Oh!" Tsubame exclaimed at once. "Sir, please allow me to mend that for you."

"Whatever. That's all you're good for, isn't it?" Yukishiro snarled, thrusting the garment at the droid. His face was still very red.

"I think I am good for a lot of things, or at least I'm learning to be," Tsubame said shyly, not understanding the insult.

"That's right," Shinta said encouragingly, patting its metal arm.

Akane came out of the kitchen, smiling slyly. "Thank you, Yuki-kun, you were such a huge help," she said, eyes lowered demurely to hide her amusement. "I don't know how we could have gotten the meal prepared without you."

"You've done fine until now," Shinta said with a puzzled frown, and glanced up at Tomoe in surprise when she lightly touched his knee in warning.

"But we don't know _how_ we managed without him," Kasumi laughed as Yukishiro glowered in silent, embarrassed rage.

The meal was lively, with such a diverse gathering. Katsura kept them entertained with adventurous tales, for he had traveled all over the galaxy as a Jedi knight. Tomoe kept quiet for the most part, though Shinta found himself staring at her several times, enraptured by her neat, elegant eating habits and her quiet little smiles that went unnoticed by all but him. He longed to ask her about herself, but not only did he feel it was presumptuous for a slave to pester a lady like her, it also seemed to be rude to question someone about their past when they seemed to be at such pains to conceal it. Her brash, arrogant young friend was a puzzle, however. It seemed odd that a mere handmaiden would have so much influence over and be so familiar with a boy who behaved like spoiled royalty. Finally, Shinta couldn't help asking in a near-whisper of nervousness, "Tomoe-san?"

"What is it, Shinta-kun?" she asked, perfectly friendly, their conversation unnoticed under the chatter of the others.

"Are you...really only a servant?"

She paused. "Why would you ask that?" she finally said.

He swallowed. "No reason," he finally managed, having lost his nerve.

Tomoe smiled, a little sadly. "Are you curious about this scar?" she asked unexpectedly.

Shinta drew in a breath, startled. Of course he was, anyone would be, but he had never dreamed of asking. Such a thing seemed too personal. "You are very pretty, even with a scar like that," he said sincerely.

She looked slightly uncomfortable at the compliment, and did not reply.

"Why haven't you had it removed?" he asked curiously. "You look like you could afford it."

"It...this scar reminds me of someone who was very dear to me," she said softly. "We were going to be married. He was killed defending me, and his sacrifice allowed me to escape with this scar as the only injury."

Shinta's heart was full and he couldn't speak, full of his own sad memories. His eyes spoke well enough, full of grief and compassion, and Tomoe smiled at him when he silently touched her hand.

"What are you talking about?" Yukishiro demanded.

"We were talking about love," Tomoe told him, knowing he would back off.

"What? Ew!" Yukishiro stared at them with his face twisted in horror and disgust, as if he was expecting Tomoe to announce her engagement with the nine-year-old slave at her side.

"Were you?" Kasumi said in surprise. "Do you have a sweetheart or something, Tomoe-san?"

"No," Shinta said abruptly, in a quiet tone that made all three of his sisters fall silent. Katsura and Tomoe looked at him thoughtfully, and Yukishiro's nose wrinkled in puzzlement.

"What about you, Kasumi-san?" Tomoe asked lightly. "Do you have a sweetheart?" The other girl blushed and giggled, which prompted an eager and fast-paced conversation among the girls that soon had Katsura's and Shinta's eyes glazing over, and sent Yukishiro storming from the table in disgust.

Later, as Katsura helped the girls clean up, they listened for a while to the sounds of Shinta, Tomoe, Yukishiro, and Tsubame playing a game in the tiny living room. Yukishiro's exuberant peevishness was skillfully moderated not only by Tomoe, but by the little slave boy as well.

"I am impressed by such skills of diplomacy in a young child like him," Katsura remarked at one point.

The girls smiled. "Shinta has always been a sweet kid," Akane said fondly.

"Shinta said earlier that you are his foster sisters," Katsura said curiously. "How long have you known him?"

The girls exchanged glances. "No one really knows where Shinta came from," Sakura finally said. "His parents wandered into town one day, but they were both already dying. They were put in quarantine for the short time they had left, and afterwards, once Shinta was declared clean of the disease, he changed hands a few times and ended up with our masters."

"There is something special about him," Kasumi said softly. "You can see it in his eyes sometimes. I think that he has the potential to become...very great. This is not the right place for him. He was never meant to be trapped here."

"I agree," Katsura said quietly, surprising them all. "I think I'll present a proposal to your masters tomorrow."

The girls stared at him. "Katsura-san...what do you have in mind for our Shinta?"

Katsura smiled. "Do you trust me?"

"You believe in him, don't you," Akane said. "You want what's best for him."

"You'd _better_," Kasumi said severely.

"Of course. Young Shinta _does_ have great potential, and I swear to you I will do all in my power to ensure he lives up to it."

0-0-0-0-0

Takasugi Shinsaku was checking his e-mail on the Nubian ship.

_"Try Ukdjakdf! It's the new Viagra!"_

**[Delete]**

_"Too lazy to make it through Coruscant University? Earn your degree online in two weeks!"_

**[Delete]**

_"Dear Queen and Jedi fugitives, please come back to Naboo! My pals are enthusiastically slaughtering innocent Nubians even as I type this! I'd hate for you to get back home and find that there's no one left for you to rule!"_

**[Delete]**

_"Moon Princess Kaguya has sent you an e-card! Click here to open...!"_

0-0-0-0-0

Bright and early the next morning, the Hiruma brothers' shop was graced with the presence of the Jedi knight Katsura.

"Oh. You again," Gohei grumbled.

"What can we do for you?" Kihei said sourly.

"Hiruma-san, I have a proposal for you. If young Shinta wins the race tomorrow, I get to keep him and his sisters. If he loses, you get to keep me."

Gohei gaped, and Kihei narrowed his eyes. Having a Jedi slave might be kind of interesting, but the stakes... "Are you crazy? _Four_ slaves? Get lost!"

"Then how about this," Katsura said easily. "If Shinta loses, you get to keep me, and if he wins - I get to keep him, the girls stay with you, and you avoid having bits of you sliced off with a lightsaber."

After some internal debate, Kihei sized Katsura up and then spat, "Agreed."

0-0-0-0-0

The day of the race, just like every single other day on Tattooine, dawned hot and bright. Shinta was anxiously wished luck before he left to prepare for the coming ordeal, and his little band of supporters filed onto a viewing platform to see whether or not their lives were about to be ruined.

Yukishiro complained of boredom until the race actually started, at which point even his attention was captured and held fast. It was a swift, dangerous game played out on the sandy lanes below, and the girls, as always, found it difficult to watch. Only Katsura and Tomoe remained perfectly quiet, he observing the boy's behavior intently, noting each extraordinary reflex; she concentrating every fiber of her will towards keeping him safe.

Apparently it worked, since Shinta emerged from the shattered remains of his pod at the end of the race, dusty and with a racing heart from his narrow escape with death, but beaming in triumph. For the first time ever, a human being had not only competed in a Tattooine pod race, but had _won_.

"He had to have cheated," Hiko said flatly when Katsura came to collect. "No way that runty little pipsqueak could have done it."

"I think," Katsura said quietly, "that this boy's spirit is strong enough to accomplish much that his body might appear incapable of. It is not always the biggest or the strongest who win a fight."

Hiko already knew this, but the idea took on new meaning for him that day, and it bugged him for years and years, even up to the day when he was walking in the desert and came across a familiar red-haired figure sprawled in the sand, felled by a blow to the head.

0-0-0-0-0

It was so hard to say good-bye to the girls, and to Tsubame. Shinta's amazed, ecstatic smile faded when he realized that he was the only one of his little family that had been freed.

"I could only bargain for one of you," Katsura explained gently.

"Then take one of my sisters," Shinta said decidedly. "I'll stay here and help the others 'til the day when we're _all_ free."

Katsura said nothing. Then the girls knelt down solemnly around Shinta, and he got a very bad feeling.

"Shinta-chan," Akane said softly, taking his hands. "You need to go with this man."

"No," he said stubbornly. "I won't leave you here."

"Shinta-chan. You have no choice in the matter - the microchips, remember? Only yours has been disabled."

"I'll find a way to do it!" he cried. "I won't leave unless all of us are _together_!"

"Shinta-chan," Sakura said softly, with a little smile as if he was being silly. (He was not fooled. He saw the tears glimmering in her eyes.) "We know you, and we trust you. You have to leave now to develop your skills, but you'll come back for us, right?"

Shinta came closest to crying then, when he saw that he was trapped.

"There is no way you'll be able to free us here," Kasumi said. "You must grow up on other worlds, you must become a man shaped by hands kinder than the ones you will find here. You're doing this for _us_, Shinta-chan. It's the only way you can save us."

Katsura wondered whether or not Shinta realized what the girls were doing as he finally began to cry and was embraced for the last time by the three young women who had looked after him when he had needed them so badly. Then Shinta's hand was in his, and they were walking away through the harsh, heavy sunlight, and Shinta was looking over his shoulder with tears still streaming down his cheeks so that several times he nearly fell.

"Shinta," Katsura said sharply. "Don't look back. That is your first lesson - there is nothing to be gained by dwelling in the past. It is the present you need to remain in, and the future you must look to and plan for."

"What if I never see them again?" the boy whispered.

Katsura stopped. Then he stepped in front of Shinta and knelt so that they were eye to eye. "This doubt and indecision is dangerous," he said. "What is it you truly want, Shinta? In this state, you will be useless if I try to train you as a Jedi. You will not succeed in other ventures either, if your heart is always agonizing over this. But do you really want to stay, and waste your potential, and face the very real possibility of being separated from your sisters anyway, as is the lot of so many slave families?"

Something in the boy's face hardened then. "Master Katsura," he said evenly. "I will put this aside for now - but I will not cast it away. I will train under you, and work as hard as I can to do what you ask of me. But when the time comes, I _will_ free my sisters."

Katsura nodded, and then they were on their way. Shinta did not look back again.

They were very close to the ship when the attack came. A one-man speeder came zooming up and a cloaked figure leaped gracefully off, slicing a lightsaber blade down at Katsura. The Jedi master only just managed to block. "Shinta, to the ship!" he shouted. "Tell them to take off!"

Shinta ran, feeling strange. His heart was pounding, but from excitement rather than fear. Worry for Katsura was nagging the back of his mind, but his first and foremost thought was about the lightsaber. _'I want one of those.'_ He had never held a weapon before in his life. To have such power in his hands, to know how to wield it with such grace, power, and skill... _'Except I would always use it for good, to help the innocent and the weak, to protect those who can't protect themselves. I would never use it to attack a good man and an unarmed boy!'_

"Please take off!" he shrieked as he came dashing into the cockpit. "Fly away, _now_!"

"Who are you, pipsqueak?" Takasugi exclaimed when he saw the little boy dashing up to him with an urgent expression in his big blue eyes.

"Right away, _please_! Master Katsura needs help!"

"Katsura?" A quick look at the commscreens confirmed this. Cursing, Takasugi slammed down on the controls and set the ship in motion.

"Well met, Jedi," the Sith lord called cheerfully as Katsura leaped to safety. "We will meet again. Look forward to it!" Then, swirling the cloak back around his shoulders, Seta Soujirou sauntered back to his speeder as if the suns' heat on his black clothing did not bother him a bit.

0-0-0-0-0

It turned out that even the great Takasugi Shinsaku could quail under the stormy eyes of the Queen of Naboo. "Look, it's _trap_. Your people are just bait. We _can't_ go back to Naboo, we'll be useless against an entire Federation army, and the only way you'll be able to do something about it is by doing your thing in the Senate on Coruscant. We're _helping_ you here."

The Queen's voice was frosty. "You say that the citizens of Naboo are being used as bait, yet their deaths may be very real. I will submit to your _suggestions_ for now - but I will not abandon my people." Then she swept out of the room, looking so formidable that even Yukishiro, who turned out to be her younger brother, cringed away as she passed.

In the ship's small lounge area, Shinta was curled up in a chair, shivering and thinking of home. For all his brave words earlier, he still was not sure he had done the right thing. What if something terrible happened to his sisters, and he wasn't there for them...?

The door whooshed open and Tomoe came in, looking distraught. She was brought up short when she saw the boy, and hurriedly slipped a holo-recorder into her pocket.

"I'm sorry," Shinta apologized, already struggling out of the chair when he realized that she probably wanted to be alone. "I'll leave."

"No. I...I'm glad to have somebody like you to talk to." She smiled, then went over and laid a hand on his shoulder to gently press him back into his seat. Feeling the tremors in his body, she took off her cloak and draped it around him. "You must be so cold. I can't imagine what it's like, going straight into space from such a hot planet."

A faint blush came into his cheeks when he felt the lingering warmth of her body in the thick folds. "Tomoe-san...are you all right?"

She looked surprised. "Oh...yes, I am."

He took a deep breath. "You seemed a little...upset when you came in."

She shook her head gently. "It is the Queen's troubles," she admitted. "I've been recording them for her. Our people are in trouble, Shinta-kun...the Trade Federation has laid siege to Naboo, and a droid army has begun to invade. There are...there are people dying."

Shinta sat up, his eyes narrowed. "We have to go to Naboo, then. To help."

She was touched. "We _will_ help, Shinta-kun. That is why we are going to Coruscant - to ask the Senate to send us aid."

"The Senate?" Shinta said doubtfully. "I don't think that's such a good idea..."

She looked at him, frowning. "Why is that?"

"Well...the Republic didn't have much of an effect on, you know, Tattooine. It's kind of hard to believe that they'd be very useful...but after all, what would I know of such things?" he added hurriedly.

Tomoe was quiet for a long moment. Then she looked up at him and gave a hard smile. "We have to try, Shinta-kun. If it does not work, then we will return to our people."

Shinta pressed his lips together. This sounded dangerous to him, but he admired her for such a brave resolution. She sounded like she was a queen herself. "Tomoe-san?" he finally said shyly. "I...I made something." He forced out the next two words, which sounded a little choked. "For you."

"For me?" she said in surprise.

He held out a little hairclip he had fashioned from some of Tsubame's leftover parts. "It's...it's not very pretty, and you don't have to actually wear it, I know you're a royal handmaid and all, but...uh...I would kind of...I'd like you to just keep it. So you can, you know, remember me." He had been unable to look at her, but she was silent for so long that he finally raised his head in dismay, thinking that she was insulted.

The look on her face was very strange, soft and yet touched with pain. "Akira-san once gave me a gift like this," she murmured. "It is still very precious to me." She looked back at him again and smiled. "This is precious to me as well, Shinta-kun." Then she rose, kissed him on the forehead, and went away.

Shinta sat there shivering, clutching her cloak around him, unable to stop smiling.

0-0-0-0-0

They were greeted on the landing platform at Coruscant by Senator Shishio Makoto of Naboo. He was a good-looking man, dressed in ceremonial robes with his long black hair tied efficiently back. He greeted the Queen warmly enough, but there was something about his eyes that Shinta did not like. Something hard, cold, and ruthless that seemed out of place in someone representing the lush, peaceful world Shinta had been told about.

"My Queen," Shishio said graciously, offering courteous nods to the Jedi as well. "You are most welcome. Please allow me to show you to your rooms, where you may take some rest and refreshment before our audience with the Senate."

"Thank you, Senator." With a nod to her handmaids, the Queen strode past the bowing Shishio to lead her retinue indoors.

For just a brief moment, Shinta's eyes met Shishio's. The boy's were wide and apprehensive, the man's cold and appraising. However, there was no further acknowledgement, and Shishio soon turned away to follow the Queen inside.

"Go with her, Shinta."

The boy looked up at Katsura, startled.

"Takasugi and I must see the Jedi council. The Queen's people will look after you."

"Yes, sir," Shinta said obediently. Hoping that he might get to talk to Tomoe again, he trotted after the others. Unfortunately, it was Yukishiro he ran into first.

"Oh. _You're_ still hanging around," the other boy grumbled rudely.

Shinta chewed gently on his lower lip. "Yes," he said cautiously. "Master Katsura wants to take me as an apprentice. He has to ask permission from the Jedi council - they're based here on Coruscant."

"I _know_ that, stupid."

The boys stared at each other in an unfriendly way.

"Um," Shinta finally tried, aware of the probable futility of his question, "do you know where the handmaids are?"

Sure enough, Enishi's expression turned even more hostile. "That's none of your business, slave."

Shinta's mouth tightened, but he kept his patience. "I am not a slave anymore," he said strongly, "and I think Tomoe-san would not mind me calling her a friend. I think...I think she would like it if I could tell her goodbye. I won't be able to see her if they let me be a Jedi."

Yukishiro was looking murderous. "My sister- she _and_ Tomoe," he said in a low voice, trembling with anger, "would not want anything to do with you. She could care less if she never sees you again. Got it?"

Shinta swallowed hard, imagining his own anger as an unsavory lump dropping down into his stomach, dispersing away. "I understand," he was able to say evenly. He understood very well that Yukishiro hated him and would be no help, so he bowed politely and went to find Tomoe on his own.

It was a different handmaid who greeted him at the door, an unfamiliar face framed by the familiar flame-colored folds of her hood. It was a little disorienting. "Tomoe-san is not available," she said gently.

Before Shinta could reply, a rather hard, lofty voice came uncoiling through the air towards them. "Who is it?"

The handmaid turned halfway to face the imposing figure that now appeared in the doorway of the dressing room, further inside the suite. "It is the boy Shinta, my lady. He wishes to speak to Tomoe-san."

"You have a message for her?" the Queen asked in her weighty, distant voice.

Shinta was shifting uneasily as he stared at the floor, extremely uncomfortable in the presence of a queen. He wanted nothing more than to melt into the shadows and hide. Yet the thought that he might never see Tomoe again made him desperate; with the memory of his farewells on Tattooine too close to his heart, the thought of losing Tomoe as well, without even saying good-bye, hurt more than he could stand. "Please," he whispered.

"Shinta-kun." The Queen's voice had softened a little, giving him the courage to peer shyly up at her through his bangs. Her elaborate clothes were intimidating, and the heavy makeup shielded her face as effectively as a veil, but something about her eyes caught and soothed him. "Speak, child. Do not be afraid."

Shinta took in a deep breath. "My lady, I...I just wanted to tell Tomoe-san good-bye. Because if they let me become a Jedi, I probably...won't see her again. For a long time."

"She will not forget you, Shinta-kun."

Something about her voice made him look up. His gaze sharpened as he looked at this hard queen, searching through her-

Her makeup seemed a little off. The left side looked just a little different than the right - there seemed to be an ever so slightly raised diagonal line. Shinta's mouth came open, and without being aware of what he was doing, he stepped toward her.

She did not move, but her expression shifted a little as she realized what he had seen. "Shinta-kun," she said warningly.

Although his mouth was open, he was confused and no sound came out. He reached up impulsively for her face, though he was far too short to even get close. Instead, she grasped his outstretched hand gently in her own. "We wish you well, young Shinta," she said gravely. "You will be in our thoughts."

"Yes," he whispered. "Thank you." Then he turned and fled, grinning wildly, with tears smarting at the corners of his eyes, his mind a whirl of astonishment.

0-0-0-0-0

"A sword," was the dutiful answer. Shinta stood alone and looking very small in the middle of the Jedi council chamber, trying to read the mind of a mechanical device. "A roll of bandages. A fistful of daggers. Some sort of animal...a raccoon."

"Are you sure it's not a weasel or a fox?" the Jedi holding the device asked sternly.

Shinta gulped. His slavery-born self-preservation instincts told him to lie and agree with the old man, but his brain was telling him that in a place like this, he would do well to stick to the truth, even if he found himself alone. "I...I suppose I'm wrong, sir, but that is what I see."

"A raccoon," the man repeated dubiously.

Shinta took a deep breath. "Yes, sir," he said firmly, clasping his shaking hands hard behind his back.

The Jedi nodded. "You'd be right, then."

The boy's breath left him in a rush, leaving him wide-eyed and weak-kneed.

"Just testing ya, kid," Takasugi chuckled from the edge of the room where he was watching. Shinta tried to smile, though his face felt lopsided from nervousness.

"Well?" Katsura now spoke up, moving to stand behind Shinta. His hands came to rest reassuringly on the boy's shoulders. "Is he to be trained?"

There was a long, uncomfortable pause. Shinta bit his lip and his eyes grew even bigger, as he caught the sense that something was wrong. They were not happy about his performance. Something was wrong with him.

"This boy has a strong heart," one of the Jedi finally admitted. "It is almost certain that some great destiny lies before him. However...we have some reservations."

Shinta could taste blood now as he bit his lip even harder, trying not to cry. It was not so much that his chances to become a Jedi looked to be rapidly evaporating. Rather, it was the sense, ingrained over years of slavery, of being worthless, stupid, low; of being despised and beaten down, no matter how hard he tried to make things good and right. _'They're not my masters,'_ he tried to tell himself, but his feelings did not understand logic.

"He's too old, for one thing," someone grumbled. It sounded lame even to Shinta's ears - whatever was wrong went deeper than this.

"Shinta already shows great raw talent in using the Force," Katsura pointed out. "He will certainly catch up with his peers easily enough, once he has begun formal training. That cannot be your true objection."

What they said was unexpected. "Tell us, boy. What is it that your thoughts dwell on so strongly?"

Shinta gaped at the Jedi who had spoken, then quickly reminded himself that such 'mind-reading' would be quite normal here. "It's...I...my sisters," he stammered. "Akane-neesan, Kasumi-neesan, and Sakura-neesan. I...I wish I hadn't had to leave them there, where I can't...where I can't do anything if they get hurt."

"Do you think that a boy of your young age could offer them true protection?" someone questioned gravely.

Shinta swallowed. "I...I know it's presumptuous of me. I have no power, at least none that I know how to use. But I...at least if I could keep them in my sight, I..." He was sounding really stupid, so he shut up. But he had to explain himself _somehow_, so he swallowed and finally said, "I want to become strong - strong enough to protect the people I love, and to protect people who can't protect themselves." There had been far too many of those on Tattooine...he had so hated being powerless to help. "That's why I've come...it's just that I can't help being worried about them."

There was a short silence. Then the same man said, "Young one, it is a serious endeavor to train in the Jedi arts. You cannot undertake such a thing lightly - your mind is too distracted."

"Still," Takasugi drawled, "he managed to guess all those images easily enough. Seriously, the boy's stuffed with so much talent, his _deficiencies_ are way above the strength of most kids his age."

Someone sighed. "Katsura-san, Takasugi-san. Surely you sense it. The boy is powerful, true; he has a great destiny, true. Yet his path is not fixed to that of the light - there is a great darkness that threatens him. His mastery of the Jedi arts may very well open him up to that darkness, making him just the sort of destructive weapon he would have been meant to fight _against_."

Shinta stared, finding all this difficult to understand. _'There's something wrong with me. I'm wrong.'_

"There is death in this boy's future," someone else stated flatly. "Death, and suffering. For himself - and for others. He is a danger."

"I have faith in Shinta," Katsura said quietly. Shinta twisted his head to look up at him. "I, too, sense this darkness - but I also sense great light. As I said, the boy's desires are pure, his spirit is strong. His path will likely be a long and difficult one, as you said. But do you honestly believe that such a heart, such a spirit will be crushed? Rather, the strongest warriors of the light are those who have come through darkness, and overcome; scarred, but not broken. I believe that if given the chance, Shinta will be the greatest Jedi we have ever seen."

Shinta could feel his face burning. The master's words were overwhelming. He wanted to run and hide, but he had never been happier in his life.

0-0-0-0-0

"Master Katsura? Are you angry with me?"

Katsura turned away from the full length windows and smiled at the boy, who was tucked into a corner of one of the couches like a chastised kitten. "Of course not, Shinta. I am displeased with the Council for refusing to allow you to be trained, but I am still as impressed with you as ever. You handled yourself well."

Shinta ducked his reddening face, again nearly overcome with that uncomfortable mix of pleasure and embarrassment. "They said...there was something wrong with me," he said in a low voice. "I think...I think I would do bad things if I was a Jedi, Master Katsura. They were right to reject me."

Katsura came over and crouched down to the boy's level. "Shinta. Look at me."

Blue eyes peeked shyly over the tops of the boy's drawn-up knees.

"There is a hard way before you, and I find it difficult to believe that you could avoid it even if the way of the Jedi is closed to you. I have every confidence that you will do the right thing in the end, Shinta. You are young, but you have a heart that seeks to do good. You are very strong, and I know that your path will lead you that way in the end, no matter what you set your hand to."

"Yes, sir," Shinta whispered, respectfully disbelieving.

The door slid open then, allowing the Queen and her retinue to enter. Shinta jumped up at once and ran to greet her, though he found himself slowing in embarrassment as he remembered that this was royalty. As a former slave, as a child with an uncertain future, he had no right to be approaching the ruler of a planet... _'But she came to me first,'_ he thought in confusion. _'She seemed like an ordinary person...a nice person. Would she really be mad if I tried to treat her like a friend when she's wearing her queen clothes? I don't understand.'_

The Queen's face was unreadable under the heavy makeup, but her gait was rapid and forceful, betraying her anger. Yet she slowed when she saw Shinta, and something about her formidable presence seemed to soften a little. "Shinta-kun. You spoke with the Jedi Council."

After a moment he swallowed, realizing that it was a sort of question. "I...I'm not- they're not going to train me, er, my lady," he managed to say.

Her doll-stiff expression did not change, but the sudden utter stillness of her body sent chills down his spine. "Master Katsura," she said, though her eyes were still fixed on the boy. "What is the meaning of this?"

"They don't trust him," Katsura explained quietly. "They fear what his future holds." He came up and laid his hand on Shinta's head. "There is a great destiny on these small shoulders, with the potential for great good as well as potential for great evil."

The Queen's eyes widened a little. "We are speaking of _this child_, of Shinta?"

Katsura chuckled humorlessly. "Believe it or not, Your Highness, it is true. Already the dark side of the Force calls to him, though he may not sense it yet. It is my firm belief that he will overcome this...but the Council does not see it so."

The Queen was silent.

"I don't want bad things to happen because of me," Shinta said in a small voice. "The Jedi council...they must know what they're doing. I'm all right, Your Highness. I... Please forgive me for disappointing you."

"You cannot disappoint me, Shinta-kun," she said flatly.

Then she raised her chin a little and looked at Katsura. "Master Jedi. Senator Shishio counseled a vote of no confidence in the Chancellor, who is weak and cannot truly help us, no matter how sympathetic he may be to our side. I have complied with this advice. However, the process of electing a new Chancellor will not help us immediately, no matter how beneficial to us in the long run - in the meantime, our people are dying. We return to Naboo. Will you accompany us?"

Katsura nodded respectfully. "We will, Your Highness."

0-0-0

_This one never saw his sisters again, that he did not. Rather, when we were finally reunited, it was only as they breathed their last in this one's arms._

_To be continued..._

Author's Note: **I made "Yukishiro" to be Enishi's original name here rather than his family's surname.** It was necessary for the first few chapters of this fic.

So, here's what happened. Like I said earlier, I got writer's block for a year and a half because Enishi had attacked Shishio instead of becoming his ally. Before that, I had completed the entire rest of the draft, including the second half of the "Return of the Jedi" arc, which resumes after the prequels are done.

Fast forward to last weekend, where I happened to find a Star Wars marathon on TV. They showed all six movies back-to-back, and even though I did not actually watch much of it, it did inspire me to finally sit down and go back to the very beginning of this fic, reading through and fixing all the mistakes I could find. This was necessary, since I had no idea at the time where things had started to go wrong (the fic's descent into unwritableness was very gradual). Also, I had not originally intended to include the prequels, so when I did decide to write them after all, a lot of new developments caused things to need to be changed in what had already been posted, particularly in the "A New Hope" story arc.

**For the record, here's a list of the only significant changes: Kenshin starts the fic living on Uncle Oibore's farm rather than with an unnamed aunt and uncle. Kaoru had never heard of Tomoe. **I took out the joke about Hiko mistaking Tomoe for Kenshin's mother, because it didn't make sense anymore once I fleshed out the prequels, so **the dialogue in the scene where Kenshin receives the sakabatou is different. I had to make Gohei much older in the scene where he's trying to make Sanosuke pay his debt to Jin-e. Also, I combined several chapters so that it ended up being fourteen total.**

So next week will be the second half of "The Phantom Menace," the week after will be the first half of "Attack of the Clones," then the second half of Clones, then first third of "Revenge of the Sith," etc. The conclusion will be the second half of "Return of the Jedi," so you KK fans can come back out of hiding for the happy endings.


	8. The Battle for Naboo

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode VIII - The Battle for Naboo** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

_It was a such a beautiful planet, the perfect realm to suit she who ruled it. This one is not surprised that all its people, from the most righteous-minded to the lowest criminals, rallied to defend it._

0-0-0

"Remind me again," Yukishiro murmured with a grin, "Whose stupid idea was this?"

Tomoe glanced over at him, a little annoyed. "It was the Queen's, Yuki. Show some respect."

"Don't worry, I'm all for the Queen. Even when she does dumb stuff."

Tomoe sighed. The ship was hidden a safe distance from the capital and they had temporarily split up to assess the extent of the invasion. She and the prince had taken the Jedi with them to check on the palace, with Shinta tagging along.

Yukishiro had been displeased with that decision, but the others had found themselves in silent agreement that the former slave would cause no harm, and could indeed prove to even be a help. In any case, Tomoe felt uncomfortable leaving him alone. He seemed like the kind of person to whom big things happened, usually bad, whether he was looking for them or not.

Katsura silently signaled for them to retreat back into the trees, where they could speak with less fear of being overheard or noticed. "We cannot break into the palace by brute force," he said quietly. "There are too many battle droids. Takasugi and I might be able to hold them off long enough for the rest of you to slip in, but then you would be left undefended, and there are surely more enemies inside. We must find a different way."

"'Undefended'?" Yukishiro said hotly. "What am I, chopped liver?"

Takasugi rolled his eyes, but Katsura smiled indulgently. "I'm sure you have been well-trained, Yukishiro-kun, but you would be only one against perhaps hundreds. Would you put Tomoe-san into unnecessary danger?"

Yukishiro looked down, scowling. "My friends could handle hundreds of droids no problem. I'd be unbeatable if they were here to back me up."

There was a pause.

"Your friends?" Katsura said casually.

Yukishiro shot him a wary look. "The Six Comrades," he declared defiantly. "When we're together, enemies wet themselves in fear."

"And you've had opportunity to prove this theory - when?" Takasugi smirked, but Katsura shot him a look and he fell silent.

"Yuki," Tomoe said calmly, "where are the rest of your Comrades?"

The boy fidgeted. "They don't like being seen. I shouldn't call them unless it's really important."

"Personally, I'd call this really important," Takasugi said pointedly, gesturing at the legions of battle droids marching around the palace.

Yukishiro glared. "Fine. I'll find my Comrades and we'll get into the palace _without_ any help from nosy Jedi knights."

"Thank you, Yuki," Tomoe told him softly.

"I have a feeling," Katsura murmured, unheard by them, "that Takasugi and I will be needed for other battles, anyway."

Shinta looked up at him curiously, but held his peace.

Yukishiro led them deep into the forests around the palace, his mouth a grim line of determination. From time to time he gave some sort of signal, and one by one, Shinta could nervously feel new presences gathering around them.

One creature stepped out of the bushes and trailed them on clawed feet, occasionally chuckling creepily; it looked like an overgrown, fleshy lizard with scary eyes. Another unseen figure drifted after them from the treetops. Shinta kept staring and staring as they walked, trying desperately to catch a glimpse, but Katsura put an arm around him and drew him closer to the center of their group. After that Shinta kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, even when he felt the shuddering footsteps of a giant that towered overhead as he fell in beside them, and heard the strange giggling of a spidery figure he could just see out of the corner of his eye.

Finally, a muscular humanoid stepped into their path, leering. "What's up, Yuki-chan. Need us to bail you out of trouble again?"

The prince raised his head high, though there was a faint trace of uneasiness in his expression. "Naboo's been invaded. We're gonna break into the palace and take control again, but, uh, these wimpy Jedi can't get past the battle droids."

"Who're you calling 'wimpy Jedi'?" Takasugi growled, though Katsura remained as unperturbed as ever.

"Please," Tomoe said quietly. "We need your help. You have aided Yukishiro in the past - now I ask that you do so again."

"I'm not convinced it's worth our time." Shinta jumped, craning his head to look at the lizard-thing. It had spoken with a human voice, which seemed very odd coming from such an alien throat. "We answer to the ruler of Naboo, or else to our own whim. Not the pestering of a child."

Takasugi was giving Yukishiro a rather sarcastic look, but when he muttered, "Six Comrades, my butt," it was so low that only Shinta, who was standing right next to him, could hear.

"_I_ am the ruler of Naboo," Tomoe said strongly. "I am Queen Tomoe, and I humbly request the help of the Six Comrades to repel this threat to our land." Despite the soldier's outfit she wore, she looked and sounded every bit a queen in that moment, with her stance and expression. Shinta stared at her, admiring the way she seemed to so elegantly bring her two selves into a unified whole. _'Tomoe-san really is the Queen...and she is still my friend. Why was I ever afraid of her?'_

"Queen, eh?" the rather effeminate-looking spider-thing said skeptically. "What're you doing slumming with these jokers all the way out here?"

"My job is not to lie around in luxury. My job is to protect my people. I will do whatever it takes to restore peace and prosperity to the Naboo."

"We don't trust the Jedi," hissed the hidden figure in the trees. "And who is this boy?"

Without looking, Tomoe held out her hand towards Shinta, as if legitimizing him with a gesture. "Shinta of Tattooine is an ally, and a friend. He fights with us, as do the Jedi knights. Will you accept them, or do you turn traitor against your Queen?"

There was a ripple of chuckling. "As long as we get to fight," the bulky man said with a grin, "I don't really care. Send the droids my way, I'll crush 'em _all_!"

0-0-0-0-0

Shinta was a little scared. It was not so much that the Six Comrades, Yukishiro included, were slaughtering huge chunks of the droid army as if the deadly machines were nothing but bags of straw. It was the way they _laughed_ while they were doing it, and said stuff like, "This is boring! I want some BLOOD, not pieces of mechanical-!" and then adding a word that Shinta was fairly sure meant the same thing as "poodoo." _'They almost act like...they would rather be cutting apart _people_.'_ The thought made him shiver.

"They look like they're doing well," Katsura murmured from where he and his three companions were monitoring the battle on the plains outside the capital.

Tomoe eyed him, smiling a little. "You sound surprised."

"Those 'Comrades' are scum," Takasugi said bluntly. "And your brother is...yeah."

"They are not the most savory characters around," Tomoe agreed, "but each of them is strong in his own way, and Yuki has trained hard. I am proud of him. I do not agree with their ethics of his friends, but for this job, they are serving their purpose."

"Then it looks like we need to serve ours," Katsura decided, satisfied that the Comrades would not fail them. "Let's go." The four of them climbed into the skimmer and headed for the palace.

0-0-0-0-0

_"What is it, Soujirou? I'm busy."_

The young Sith lord smiled. "Forgive me, Shishio-sama. I report that I am in place in the palace of Naboo, and all that remains is to wait for the Jedi to arrive."

_"Fine. Do not fail."_

"Of course not. By the way, congratulations."

_"For what?"_ the irritable voice snapped. Then, _"Oh. Well, of course I was going to be made Chancellor. I didn't get rid of Valorum for nothing."_

"Hai. You should be hearing from me again soon, Master." He cut the connection and once again stretched out with the Force, sensing Katsura Kogorou and Takasugi Shinsaku - and the child - approaching ever closer.

0-0-0-0-0

Compared to the crude slaughter of the Six Comrades, watching Katsura and Takasugi fight was like watching a performance of the fine arts. They were so graceful they practically danced, weaving a pattern of protection around the queen as she strode down corridor after corridor, Shinta trotting sheepishly at her heels with the distinct feeling that he was ruining the aesthetics of their little procession. From time to time Tomoe would lift her gun to take down droids in the distance before they could get close, but for the most part, the Jedi seemed capable not only of maintaining their charmed circle, but of turning enemy fire back on even the far away droids.

"We need to get to the upper floors," Tomoe said shortly, eyeing the elevators with a distrustful look. "I don't relish being confined to a small box while in transition. None of you happen to have tow cables, do you?"

"Unfortunately not," Katsura replied, most of his concentration fixed on repelling fire from down the hall. "Your Highness, if you can take the boy and hide for a little while, Takasugi and I will meet with you again as fast as we can."

"We're splitting up?" she said, looking displeased. "That is not a good idea."

"Guess the small box it is, then," Takasugi said sarcastically.

"I will defer to your judgment, Master Jedi," Tomoe said shortly. "Come, Shinta-kun."

The boy wasted only a moment, looking wildly between the Queen and the Jedi. Then he hurried to catch up with her.

"Shinta-kun," she said as she blasted one of the full-length windows, climbed through it after it had shattered, and shot a cable up to the ledge above. "Can you hold on to me very tightly? I won't have an arm to spare to catch you if you fall."

Shinta gulped. "I'm strong, Tomoe-san," he said, hoping that he was strong _enough_. He was hesitant to touch her until she made an impatient gesture, then he gingerly put his arms around her.

"Tighter," she instructed. "Forget about propriety, Shinta-kun. Your life, and possibly mine also, is at stake here." He squeezed tighter, then nearly screamed when their feet left the ledge. He clung as tight as he could, feeling like any second he was going to lose his grip and die.

Just when it felt like his arms were stretched to their limit and there was no way he could hold on even a second longer, they were stumbling ungracefully up against a second window, which Tomoe promptly shot to pieces. "Are you all right, Shinta-kun?" she asked when they had gotten safely into the hallway. Both of them were breathing hard.

"Y-Yes," he managed. "What about you?"

"I'm fine. Come." She took his hand and they hurried off together.

0-0-0-0-0

It was easier without having to protect anyone. Katsura and Takasugi made their swift, steady way to a stairwell, where they leapt nimbly from railing to railing at impossibly large increments. The droids had trouble following them, and any new ones which somehow appeared out of the woodwork were promptly shot down by their own reflected fire.

"We're making good time," Takasugi observed as they vaulted over the last landing and headed for the next maze of corridors. "Now let's just hope that the Wonderful and Amazing Prodigy of yours manages not to attract any trouble 'til we can get-"

Someone was waiting for them.

"Takasugi," Katsura murmured, "what have I told you about speaking too soon?"

"Not to do it," his companion admitted readily, powering his lightsaber back on.

"Hello, Katsura-san, Takasugi-san," the black-robed figure greeted. "My name is Darth Soujirou, and it truly is a pleasure to meet you." He casually set one foot back in a stance of preparation and ignited his own weapon. "From what I have heard, you will die very honorably, with much courage. I thank you for that."

"Cocky brat," Takasugi commented. "Like the Yukishiro kid, plus keigo."

"You are very confident," Katsura remarked to the young dark lord. "Like I just told my partner - it is unwise to boast too soon."

Soujirou smiled brightly. "We will see, Katsura-san." With no further ado he flew at them, almost too fast to see. The Jedi dodged blindly, so that they only avoided injury out of pure reflex.

0-0-0-0-0

"I was afraid of this," Tomoe hissed through gritted teeth as battle droids poured down the corridor toward them, keeping up a steady, methodical rain of fire. The young queen and her small companion had taken cover in a decorative niche (she had had no qualms about flinging out the priceless-looking work of art that had been ensconced there in order to make room). "I do not like the idea of hiding and waiting for help anyway, but it looks as if our enemies have not even given us that option." She was returning fire when she could, taking out a droid or two here and there, but she was only one against at least thirty or forty. It was only a matter of time before the little army of death machines caught up and annihilated them.

"Tomoe-san," Shinta said helplessly, "I wish there was something I could-"

Tomoe suddenly gasped and made a soft, strangled sound. Her back hit the wall and she slid to the ground, clutching her shoulder as her face turned white.

"TOMOE-SAN!"

"I'm all right," she gasped automatically, but he saw that she had been _shot_, that there was _smoke_ trickling upward from her flesh were the laser bolt had seared her.

"NO!"

"Shinta-kun, no!"

Fury had possessed him. He was not even aware of what he was doing when he flung himself out into the open and took a few charging steps toward the army of droids. He dimly heard Tomoe's horrified scream, but he wasn't thinking about that at the moment. "GO AWAY!" he roared at the droids, shouting the first thing that came into his head. "LEAVE US ALONE!" He flung up his hands as if trying to throw something at them.

Incredibly, it worked. It had actually worked almost the moment he had seen his friend hurt. Some invisible force blasted out from him, flinging the whole crowd of mechanical soldiers violently against the walls. A good many of them smashed through the windows and shattered on the ground far below. Crushed machinery was sparking and twitching along the entire corridor, black patches blasted into the white stone and plaster.

Shinta stood at the head of the carnage, breathing hard.

"Sh...Shinta-kun," Tomoe whispered. She struggled to her feet and walked slowly over to him. She knelt, hesitated, then lifted her hand away from her injured shoulder and gently laid it on his cheek so that he would face her.

His eyes had changed color. The realization sent a chill through her, as she saw molten gold gazing back at her rather than soft, innocent blue. "Shinta," she whispered. "Shinta, can you hear me?"

He blinked, and that terrifying look in his eyes began to fade. "...Tomoe-san?"

"Yes, dear," she said quickly. "Shinta-kun, are you all right?"

He was looking at her seriously, the bright gold now a dull amber. "Of course. Are you okay, Tomoe-san?"

"Yes. Yes, it's not that bad. If you just help me tie it up, I'll be perfectly all right."

He blinked again. Then he took a deep breath, and the last traces of yellow drained out of his eyes. "You sure?"

"Yes," she said, very gently.

To his mortification, he burst into tears. "I'm sorry!"

"It's all right, sweetheart," she murmured, pulling him into a comforting hug. "Everything is all right." She managed to smile. "You saved us, Shinta-kun. We both would have died or been captured if you hadn't done what you did."

He drew in shaky breaths, trying to stop acting like a baby. "Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah. Here, let me..."

When her wound was bandaged, Tomoe stood and looked down at him, smiling a little at the glimmery-eyed, anxious look on his face. "Well, I don't think it's a good idea to just hide and wait for the others. I think we'll be all right if we see how far we can get on our own, ne?"

"Okay," he muttered, too shaken to even think of protesting any plan that was suggested to him.

0-0-0-0-0

"Are you well, Takasugi-san?" Soujirou asked conversationally as he slashed, nearly taking off his opponent's legs.

"Peachy," Takasugi snarled, just barely managing the landing as he came down from avoiding the nasty blow. Luckily Katsura swept in at that moment to prevent Soujirou from pressing any advantage, but there was no missing the violent coughs Takasugi struggled to suppress as he readied for another attack.

Their intense little battle raged down deserted hallways, as if even the battle droids had been warned to stay out of their way. They had soon moved out of the public corridors and ended up among the service areas where only maintenance crews usually ventured.

Katsura eyed his partner, who was coughing again. "Takasugi," he murmured out of the corner of his mouth.

"I'm _fine_!"

0-0-0-0-0

Shinta got completely turned around in the maze of hallways, but from Tomoe's irritably mumbled remarks, he got the impression that they were having to double back at times when there were too many enemies in the way. He did not volunteer to blast any droids to pieces again, and she did not ask.

"Ah," Shinta murmured in surprise when they slipped through a small doorway and found themselves in a huge hangar.

"Ssh."

He nodded. He had already seen the droid troops marching slowly among the Nubian ships.

"Ah." This time it was Tomoe who had released a little breath. Shinta blinked and followed her gaze, where he saw a little group of depressed-looking people in uniform huddled on the floor, surrounded by droids. Tomoe gently drew him back and put her mouth very close to his hear before she spoke. "We need to free them."

He turned his head so he could also speak directly into her ear. "Won't be hard." He smiled a little. "Lame security." She raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged. "They're just _sitting_ there."

She frowned. "In the middle of a pack of droids. With guns."

"Yeah." He chewed his lip as he thought for a moment. "I can...do the Force thing again."

"Shinta-kun," she said, much too quickly.

His voice was soft. "I think it's all right. I think...I can do it without going scary." He drew in a nervous breath. "I just can't do it as strong."

Her hand was already on his shoulder, and now she leaned her forehead lightly against his. "Shinta-kun," she whispered. "You don't have to..."

His heart beating fast. He shifted just a little so that he could brush a feather-light kiss against her cheek. He had meant to say something then, but found he didn't have the courage, so he turned away and strode out toward the droids.

"Shinta!" It was a nearly silent cry as her hands flew up to cover her traitorous mouth, but her eyes were huge as she stared at the small boy now approaching the battle droids as confidently as if he was their commander.

He sounded the part too. A few octaves too high, of course, but otherwise, his attitude was dead-on. "What are you doing with these prisoners, soldier?"

"Uh...guarding them, sir." The droid actually sounded _flustered_.

"Who gave you those orders?" Shinta snapped aggressively, his tiny organic form looking ludicrous next to the skeletal gun-wielding machine.

"Ah...that is..." The droid finally got its act together. "Pardon, sir, but I need some identification."

Shinta blinked. Then he said calmly, "Officer 321789."

There was a tense pause.

"That is not a legitimate identification code." Shinta was suddenly at the center of a ring of hostile weapons. "Identify yourself!" The threatening mechanical voice had lost all trace of respect, and Tomoe's heart was in her mouth.

"Well," Shinta said, motioning at Tomoe (though she had no idea was he wanted her to do), "I suppose I'd better try again. How about Officer 626...387? 9. 841. 35? Any of those ringing a bell?"

"...Does not compute. Arrest him!"

Even before the droid spoke, Shinta was raising his arms and searching deep within himself for the flow of power he had accidentally touched before. _'Where...what happened last time? Tomoe-san was in danger...Tomoe-san had been hurt...'_

His stomach lurched uncomfortably just at the memory, and in that instant he brushed against it. _'There! Ah...'_ He'd lost it again. _'She was hurt...I had to protect her...I have to...protect-'_ It was jolting, and a little frightening, but after only a split's second of startled hesitation, he grasped that flow in his mind and was swept up. "HAAAHH!"

Droids went flying - and so did wild bolts from their laser guns. "Tomoe!" he cried in distress, nearly losing his focus.

The captive pilots had wasted no time in diving for guns dropped by the mangled droids. Within a minute, any still-functioning battle droids had been shot down. That was when Shinta noticed that he could not move his arms. "They handcuffed me?" he yelped.

"You didn't even notice?" one of the pilots said in amazement, and another hurried to release the boy.

"Shinta-kun!" Tomoe cried as she hurried up to him. "Are you all right?" She searched his face, but there was no sign that his eyes had changed color this time.

"Um, yes." He shifted uncomfortably, feeling foolish with his hands trapped behind his back.

Tomoe leaned over and kissed the top of his head. "I'm glad."

He blushed and went mute until the man working on the handcuffs was able to get them off.

"Your Highness, we are glad you're safe," one of the pilots was saying gratefully to Tomoe. "What should we do now?"

"It is critical that we capture the viceroy," Tomoe explained. "However, my brother and his comrades are fighting even now to distract the enemy forces from this mission, and he will not be able to hold them off much longer. I need you all to do your part - you must destroy the control center in space and disable the droid army."

"Yes, my Queen, but what of you? Surely you do not intend to go after the viceroy on your own?"

Tomoe glanced at Shinta and smiled a little. "I'll have Shinta-kun with me."

Shinta's face reddened, but then he was shocked to realize that the pilots were all now looking at him with respect. "Master Shinta, is it?" one of them said, bowing in formal greeting. "It is an honor to meet you, sir."

"_Me_?" Shinta squeaked, backing up so that he was half-hiding behind Tomoe. "I...I'm just a slave, I mean an ex-slave, from Tattooine and I really don't...I..."

Tomoe laid a reassuring hand on his head. "If you find it uncomfortable being held in awe, don't introduce yourself by amazing displays of power next time."

"But I didn't mean-!" It took him a moment to realize she was joking. "...I'm sorry."

"Don't be silly." She absently squeezed his shoulder in a one-armed hug, then turned back to her pilots. "To your ships, please. Keep an eye on the guard towers and take off when you see your chance."

The pilots nodded and headed to their craft to prepare.

Tomoe looked back at the boy. "Shinta-kun, do you think you could somehow...well, contact Master Katsura, and see if they're all right?"

"I'll try," Shinta said cautiously, "but try not to expect much."

It was even more difficult this time, but when he had closed himself off to the outside world, he reached out from deep inside himself and somehow managed to touch just the edge of Katsura's mind. _"Master Katsura?"_

He had to try a few times before the Jedi master seemed to notice him. Then Shinta was startled when his tenuous connection suddenly expanded and gripped him, seeming to reverse from calling to being called. He couldn't exactly hear words, but he got the strong sense that Katsura was preoccupied and distressed. _"Master Katsura, are you all right?"_

Impatience, something like a mental shove, then a deliberate disengaging.

Shinta stumbled backwards, disoriented, and found Tomoe steadying him. "What is it, Shinta-kun? Are they all right?"

"Uh...no," Shinta stammered. "They...I think-" He took a deep breath to calm himself. "I think we might be on our own."

"Are they all right?" Tomoe asked in alarm.

Shinta opened his mouth to reassure her, then paused. He had to tell her the truth as he understood it. "For now, they are."

Tomoe swallowed. "All right. We'll just have to trust them, then." She smiled a little. "As I trust you."

Even as Shinta was staring at her, a sudden cry echoed from above. Their heads jerked around to find the nearest pilot slumping down in his still-open cockpit.

"He's been hurt!" Shinta yelped.

Tomoe was already halfway to the fighter. Luckily the hatch was still open, though it was only with extreme awkwardness that she managed to drag the wounded pilot to the ground. "Are you all right?" she asked urgently, stripping away his space suit to find where his uniform had been torn underneath.

"Med...kit..." the man gasped painfully. "Still in...fighter..."

"I'll get it," Shinta offered quickly, scampering nimbly up into the cockpit. Unfortunately, as he rummaged around in the narrow space, looking for the pilot's medical kit, his elbow knocked into the autopilot switch. He looked up in alarm when the hatch suddenly closed and the fighter began moving slowly but inexorably toward the open hangar gate.

"Shinta-kun!" Tomoe cried.

"Your Highness...an honor...to serve..." They were the pilot's last words.

Tomoe stared at him for a long moment, then reached with shaking hands to close his sightless eyes. By the time she looked up again, the boy was gone. "Shinta-kun," she whispered.

0-0-0-0-0

Frantic button mashing did not restore control until he was almost in space, so Shinta accepted fate and strapped himself in with only a brief whimper. He gripped the controls hard, trying frantically to remember what the Nubian pilots had shown him on the trip from Tattooine, but the sight of black space and enemy ships and flashing deadly laser fire was so terrifying that he could not move.

He closed his eyes to shut it all out - and found a little space to breathe. With sight cut off, all he knew was the feel of the ship in his hands, surrounding him, waiting for him. He knew that Master Katsura would want him to be attuned to the Force, so hesitantly, he reached out his senses.

It took a while to get used to, and his concentration was broken once or twice when stray blasts rocked his fighter, but eventually Shinta found himself navigating what seemed like another world. His eyes were still firmly closed, so he could see nothing; yet in his mind, the space around him was like a strange reverse-image map. He could somehow _tell_ where all the people were, darting around him like tiny comets in their unseen ships, hanging in clumps where the battle stations were. The movement of each player on the battlefield was clear. He could almost even catch a faint scent of the pilots' thoughts as they absorbed themselves in the battle.

_"You must destroy the control center in space and disable the droid army."_ That was the task Tomoe had assigned to those who were loyal to her. They had no business being in space except to complete the mission she had given them.

_Destroy the control center._ Shinta nearly opened his eyes and broke his concentration again, but remembered just in time. He angled his ship and soared determinedly ahead, unknowingly headed straight into the heart of danger.

0-0-0-0-0

"What do you mean, 'The Six Comrades have failed'?" Yukishiro raged, hacking off three droids' heads with one swipe without looking. He was not looking because his attention was already occupied by a very battered-looking old man whose skull-embroidered veil had been torn off.

"I mean," Gein said with exaggerated patience, "that the knucklehead bit off more than he could chew, Whalemouth went insane quite a while ago and is mired down by a gang of ambitious minions, the drag queen accidentally magneted himself to a battle droid hours ago, and Yatsume is...yeah, let's not get into that."

"And all three of your Iwanbous are spread over the battlefield in pieces," Yukishiro added scathingly.

"Well...I still have Iwanbou III's right index finger." Gein brandished the rubbery object as proof.

"Great. So if anyone attacks you, you can hit 'em with the Finger-Twist of Doom." Yukishiro knocked off another handful of enemies and then nearly cried with disgust when he saw a confused battle droid limping past, with Otowa writhing and yelling on its back. "Ugh."

"There's always the chance that the queen has captured the viceroy by now."

"..." Yukishiro suddenly remembered that his sister was on a dangerous mission with only two guardians. (The little red-haired twerp didn't count.) "Gein, go find her and make sure she's safe."

Gein bowed. "As you wish, princeling."

Yukishiro might have done better to keep his last Comrade close by, because a minute afterwards, the sheer number of the droids overwhelmed him, and he was captured.

0-0-0-0-0

There was no time. Tomoe took only a moment to bow her head in salute, then seized the dead pilot's weapons and hurriedly made her way up to where her quarry waited. Luck was on her side, and she never ran into any large groups of droids; the strays who crossed her path were quickly dispatched of.

When she reached the throne room where the Trade Federation viceroy was holed up, it was the sheer element of surprise which allowed her to shoot down several of his bodyguards as she strode up to him and pressed the barrel of a gun under his flabby green chin.

"You! What is the meaning of this?" the viceroy demanded, eyes bulging with outrage.

"This," Tomoe said calmly, digging the gun harder into his flesh, "means that if you don't tell your droids to put their weapons down immediately and surrender, you will die."

"Put them down!" the viceroy exclaimed frantically, "put your weapons down!"

"Uh...that does not compute," one of the battle droids said uncertainly.

"What? Put your guns down NOW!"

"But...but we're battle droids!" the machine pleaded. "We're programmed to shoot things!"

"Well, don't shoot _this_ one!" the viceroy raged. "Unless she takes her gun out of my face. Then kill her."

"Kill her?" the droid said interestedly. "Roger!"

"NO! NOT YET! NO!"

0-0-0-0-0

"We'll give him a minute, shall we?"

Ignoring the condescension in their enemy's voice, Katsura looked with alarm at his friend, who had actually fallen to his knees as he coughed and coughed, spattering blood on the floor. "Takasugi, enough. Retreat and go see if you can find the Queen. You may be able to help her."

"I'm NOT turning tail and running just because I'm-!"

"Coughing your guts up?" Soujirou finished, almost sympathetically. "An honorable but a wasteful end, Takasugi-san. Perhaps you'd reconsider taking a temporary retreat? I promise you'll get your turn one day, once some med droids have seen to you. Or is this a chronic condition?"

Takasugi cursed and charged at him.

"Takasugi, don't be foolish," Katsura said sharply. "You are in no condition to continue this fight."

The response was a concise, non-verbal suggestion of what Katsura could do to himself. Rather impressive, considering that Takasugi was simultaneously taking on a Sith lord.

"Now, that's not very polite, Takasugi-san," Soujirou scolded teasingly as he kept up his defense pattern, not even bothering to fight back. "A Jedi Knight should be elegant and poised, not crude and reckless."

"Don't tell me how to fight," Takasugi snarled.

"Takasugi," Katsura said sharply. "You're heading into-"

It was too late. The other two warriors had been driven out of the corridor into an open room, leaving Katsura trapped until the generators' shields in front of him cycled off again. He watched helplessly as his friend hacked furiously at the graceful young Sith, blood flecking the Jedi robes that came from no visible wound. "Takasugi..."

In the end, Seta Soujirou did not have to raise a finger. He powered off his lightsaber and bowed in salute as Takasugi, fighting desperately for air, slowly sank to the floor and breathed his last.

0-0-0-0-0

Tomoe dodged just in time, but the price of eluding that fire was heavy. She found herself sprawled before a triumphantly grinning viceroy. "Goodbye, Your Highness."

"Goodbye yourself, viceroy!" The sudden new voice caused everyone's heads to snap to the doorway in surprise. The last image recorded on the visual circuits of the battle droids was that of a second Tomoe calmly blasting laser fire at them.

"But-! She-! You-!" Flabbergasted, the viceroy looked away from the Queen's doppelganger in the doorway, only to find the first one pointing a gun in his face again.

"Where were we?" she said sweetly. Then, addressing the elderly figure stepping out of the frame of the doppelganger, "Well-timed, Gein-san."

"My pleasure, Your Highness," the man said with a bow.

"Gein-san."

"...Yes, Your Highness?"

"You have a doll made in my exact likeness. Explain yourself."

Gein found himself sweating. "Ah...well, that is..."

0-0-0-0-0

For a long moment, silence reigned. Katsura stood very still, staring at his friend's body and trying to make his mind a blank.

Soujirou quietly arranged Takasugi's figure into a more tasteful position, closing the now-sightless eyes and carefully wiping blood away from the slightly grizzled chin. Then he rose and gazed calmly at his remaining opponent. "I thank you for a good fight, Katsura-san," he said quietly. "Unfortunately, I shall have to cut it short - my mission is nearly complete, and we still need one of you for a little while longer." He bowed. "Farewell for now, Katsura-san." He walked away.

0-0-0-0-0

It was a thunderous crash, shuddering through the whole fighter, which finally startled Shinta into opening his eyes. He found his vehicle sliding to a violent halt right in the middle of an enemy hanger. "I'm in a Federation command center," he realized with a sinking heart. Already, alarmed battle droids were advancing on him. He probably had only a few seconds before enemy security kicked in and eliminated him.

Shinta's eyes narrowed. "Well, I'm not going down without a fight." Determinedly, he hit the controls to shoot at the battle droids around him. Several large shots blasted holes in the hanger walls, and a couple even went zooming off down a corridor so that he did not see what they might have impacted. "Come on, sweetie, you think you can wake up again?" he crooned softly to his fighter, hopefully testing one set of controls after another. "For me?"

He was so busy wrestling with his fighter that he did not notice the larger trembling start to shake the whole control center. To Shinta's astonishment, the control panel lit up again and his fighter began whining at him in an exhausted but eager-to-please way. "Oh, thank you, thank you so much! Now come on, girl, let's see if we can't get you back into the sky."

He managed to coax his ship back out of the hanger, breathless with relief when the machine not only held together, but seemed to gain strength and stability as they moved back out into open space. "I'll live!" he cried excitedly. Then he noticed a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, and craned over his shoulder, startled, to find that the Federation's droid control center was laboriously exploding.

0-0-0-0-0

"Get your claws off me," Yukishiro snarled, yanking futilely at the battle droids that held his arms and were attempting to handcuff him. They had identified him as the Nubian prince, and apparently were going to bring him to the viceroy to use as a hostage. "I'll tear you buckets of bolts limb from limb!"

The droids had just succeeded in locking the restraints around the boy's wrists when the command center died. For one second they all reacted in automatic surprise - then the sea of droid troops slumped over as if dead.

Yukishiro frowned, then experimentally kicked at the nearest one. It crumpled satisfactorily at his feet. "Haha! Take that, loserbot!" Then he paused, realizing that he was still handcuffed. "HEY!"

0-0-0-0-0

One of the shocked and delighted Nubian pilots established contact with Shinta's fighter and guided him through the landing process. Relieved, the boy pulled off his helmet and opened the hatch, only to find himself surrounded by cheering Nubian pilots. "Um..."

"Don't tell me this little squirt is the one who saved all our butts!"

"Who is he?"

"Where's he from?"

"Who cares! Three cheers for the kid!"

Cheeks burning, stumbling from one clump of congratulatory pilots to the other, Shinta was relieved when he finally bumped against someone with steadying hands and a quiet smile. "Are you all right, Shinta-san?"

"I'm...fine," Shinta said, blinking. He was not used to be addressed in such a way, and found it disconcerting.

"Quite an impressive performance up there," the young man said encouragingly. He knelt down to the boy's level, so that Shinta finally got a good look at the soft hair, large sweet eyes, and beautiful but strangely unsettling smile.

"Um...well, I didn't mean...it was an accident, you see," Shinta tried to explain, but he was distracted. "Are you a Jedi?" he blurted out. He could somehow sense that the Force was gathered strongly around this person, but something about it felt off.

"A Jedi?" the young man said in amusement. "How interesting that you should think so. Well, I'm afraid that I must leave now, young one, but I am sure we shall meet again."

"Oh," Shinta said, trying to be polite. "I look forward to it, um..."

"Seta Soujirou," the young man said with a smile.

"Oh. Nice to meet you. Um, how do you know me?"

Soujirou smiled and leaned in close, so that his murmured words would be heard by the boy alone. "You and your power are well known among certain circles, Shinta-san." Then he leaned back and smiled cheerfully at the amazed child. "Grow strong, young one. We will be watching." Then he got to his feet, picked up a black cloak that Shinta had not noticed before, swirled it around his shoulders, and walked away.

Shinta gasped. "That was...but it can't be...!"

0-0-0-0-0

The last generator shield finally cycled off, and Katsura moved forward slowly. The practical part of his mind was still vaguely at work, reaching out for the young Sith lord's presence and finding him too far away to deal with.

The main part of Katsura's mind did not care one way or the other. He rested his hand on Takasugi's forehead for a moment. Then he took a deep breath and lifted his friend's body in his arms to take him away for last rites.

0-0-0-0-0

"Shishio-sama."

_"Soujirou. Are they dead?"_

"Takasugi Shinsaku-san is, Master. As you ordered, I have left Katsura Kogorou-san alive for the present, to lay the groundwork in Shinta-san's training. It should be no trouble to eliminate Katsura-san when he has served out his purpose."

_"Ah, yes, the boy. Did you make contact?"_

"Yes, Master."

_"And what did you make of him?"_

A smile. "I think it would be wise to tread carefully, Shishio-sama."

_"What's that supposed to mean?"_

"Well. The most powerful weapons always have the potential to blow up in your face, ne?"

_"I will not allow that to happen. The boy will be mine."_

"Of course, Master."

_"Now that your mission is complete, I'll be expecting you soon. There is need of you here in the capital."_

"Yes, Master. I shall return at once."

0-0-0-0-0

When the battle dust cleared, the Federation viceroy was sent to Coruscant for trial, Katsura was given reluctant permission to train young Shinta as a Jedi Knight, and Yukishiro was finally freed from his handcuffs ("Took you long enough, you incompetent idiots!").

As Tomoe worked to repair the damage and restore order to her realm, services were held for Takasugi, under the shadow of the mysterious Sith threat. The darkness frightened Shinta, who was glad to be permitted a last visit to Naboo when the Queen invited him and his master to witness the celebration marking the restoration of the capital.

"Tomoe-san," Shinta whispered to her, beneath the joyful noise of the festivities.

The Queen looked down at him, her eyes shining through the mask of her makeup. "What is it, Shinta-kun?" she responded quietly.

"I...I'm going to go away for a long time." He took a deep breath and looked up at her, studying her, trying to store up enough strength of memory to sustain him through the coming years of separation.

She looked down into his wide, soulful eyes and felt her heart melting. "Shinta-kun." Right there in public, decked out in her easy-to-stain finery, Tomoe went to her knees and wrapped her arms around the boy.

His eyes were huge as he awkwardly lifted his arms to hug her back. "Tomoe-san?

"I will never forget you," she whispered. Then she leaned back and smiled. "You are an extraordinary young man. You will grow, and become strong, and I know that one day you will do great things for the people of this galaxy."

He swallowed, feeling like a heavy burden was being placed on his shoulders, but also buoyed by the strength of her belief in him. He would not fail her - he hoped he wouldn't. "I just...wanted you to know, Tomoe-san...I've never met anyone like you, and I- I wish you the best." It sounded lame, and it was not what he really wanted to say. He did not even know what he was trying to say.

Yet somehow, she understood anyway. "I will fight hard, Shinta-kun, and I know you will, too. We can protect the people of this Republic together." She smiled. "No matter how far apart we may be."

Tears welled up in his eyes, but did not fall. "Yes. That's what I want, Tomoe-san. To protect people." In his heart he added, _'I will become strong enough to protect you and your happiness, Tomoe-san. I promise.'_

0-0-0

_This promise, made in childhood with such sincerity, was to end in complete failure._

_To be continued..._


	9. The Courtship of Lady Tomoe

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode IX - The Courtship of Lady Tomoe **(ROUGH DRAFT)**

A/N: Although the "Phantom Menace" arc worked pretty well with the RuroKen stuff, **"Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith" gave me lots and lots of trouble. There are some places where my frustration is pretty obvious, so I apologize in advance.**

0-0-0

_All throughout the years of training, this one could not forget her. Her memory lived strong in this heart, right alongside thoughts of my sisters. When this one finally saw her again, it was like the world had been reborn._

0-0-0

"Stop fidgeting, Kenshin."

"I can't help it! We're going to see T- the Senator again. After so long." Kenshin blushed a little and ducked his head to try to hide it. Katsura only smiled.

The elevator doors opened and the two Jedi stepped out. Farther along the corridor they were met by a handmaid who showed the warriors into the suite of the former Queen of Naboo. The Queen had abdicated not long ago in order to try a more political method of protecting her beloved planet.

Seeing her visitors, Tomoe came to greet them. "Master Jedi, it is good to see you. You must have heard about the attempt on my life earlier."

"We have," Katsura said gravely. "I offer my condolences on your loss - the decoy was one of your own handmaids, was she not?"

"Yes," Tomoe said quietly. "She was a good friend."

"Apologies, Senator," Katsura said gently. "We will do our best to protect you, but our primary purpose here is to investigate the motives behind this assassination attempt. Something about this feels wrong - there is more to it than what appears on the surface."

"We _will_ keep you safe, Tomoe-san," Kenshin spoke up, a steely glint in his eye. "I swear it on my life."

Tomoe blinked in surprise, noticing Kenshin for the first time. "Shinta-kun! My goodness, you really are a Jedi now."

Kenshin grinned, pleased. "Hello, Tomoe-san. I am very glad- That is, it's good to finally meet again. I...er, I've been given a new name, now that I am in training. Himura Kenshin."

"Kenshin," she murmured thoughtfully as she studied him. "It is a strong name. But I think a gentler name like 'Shinta' suits you better, little one."

Kenshin nodded submissively and fell back a little, his cheeks reddening.

_'Poor boy,'_ Katsura thought in amusement. Out loud, however, all he said was, "Then with your permission, Senator, we will begin outfitting your personal suite with the necessary precautions."

"Thank you, Master Jedi."

0-0-0-0-0

That night, Katsura frowned and repeated what he had said for the third time. "_Kenshin_. I'm talking to you."

"Mm...yes?" Kenshin mumbled distractedly, his eyes fixed on the vidscreen in his hands.

"Kenshin," Katsura said in exasperation. "Stop oogling her and pay attention."

Kenshin's eyes snapped to his master's. "I'm not oogling her!"

"You are staring at her fixedly," Katsura pointed out, "when what you're _supposed_ to be monitoring is the perimeter of her room and the immediate vicinity."

"I am!" Kenshin insisted.

"Uh huh. Then who just walked past her door?"

Kenshin quickly replayed the presence he had been subconsciously sensing through the Force. "Her maid, Azusa," he answered, a little smugly.

"And you got that through the vidscreen, did you?" Katsura said with a raised eyebrow.

Kenshin flushed. "All right, fine. It's just that...she's so beautiful." His words ended on a whisper. Kenshin paused, then turned earnest eyes up to the older man. "Master, do you think-?"

"No," Katsura said at once. "At least, not now, not in our line of work. You cannot afford to let your energies and concentration be divided at this point in your training, my padawan."

Kenshin sighed. "I knew you would say that."

"Have patience," Katsura said kindly. "Believe me, you're not the first young man to fall in love under extremely inconvenient circumstances."

Kenshin flushed at the bald statement, but kept his peace. He returned his eyes to the vidscreen just in time to see Tomoe suddenly sit up in bed, draw a knife from under her pillow with the same movement, and plunge it calmly into something long and black that thrashed disgustingly atop her silken sheets.

"A death worm," Katsura hissed, and whirled to smash into the senator's room.

"Tomoe-san!" Kenshin cried, hurrying in his wake, "Are you all right?"

"If the plan was to use me as bait," she said dryly, "it is my humble opinion that you were cutting it much too close."

"I am so sorr-" Kenshin started, but Katsura cut him off.

"Kenshin, no time. It's getting away."

Instantly snapping back to business, Kenshin bowed briskly to Tomoe and then strode over to the window as if there was no trace in his mind of the thought that she looked breathtakingly lovely in her wafting nightwear.

For a second, the droid that had brought the worm hovered by the window, perhaps listening to remote orders. Then it began to speed off. Kenshin wasted no time in flinging himself through the window, glass and all, to seize hold of the thing before it could escape.

Still in the room, Katsura bowed to Tomoe - "If you will excuse me, Senator" - and strode out.

"My lady, are you all right?" one of the maids asked anxiously as she ran in.

"Oh, yes," Tomoe murmured, inspecting the readout on the recording device she had used to get the droid's specifications and the coded address of its human user's transmitter. "Quite all right."

Kenshin, soaring through the air, realized that he might have just done something stupid. The droid was careening wildly through the aerial streets, apparently trying to bash Kenshin to pieces against the vehicles zooming past. It took all his concentration to sense each approaching hazard and avoid it. He had only just reached the point when he realized that this had been going on for a while and his arms felt like they were being pulled out of their sockets and he _really_ wished that some kind of help would magically appear right about now, when the edge of his consciousness was tweaked by the feel of Katsura's presence. He could not spare a physical look, so he glanced through the invisible life-threads of the Force and found his master cruising along close by, maneuvering up below him.

Now, how to drop down into the passenger seat. Should he just...let go? The thought made him gulp nervously.

He was still trying to steel himself to release his fingers when the decision was abruptly made for him. A blaster shot shattered the droid above him; the resistance against his hands suddenly broke, sickeningly; the world dropped away from him and he was left completely helpless, plummeting toward death.

_'Not helpless,'_ he reminded himself. Again he reached out his mind to the Force, to the pulsing strands twining through the space around him, as far as the mind's eye could see, wrapping through the entire planet and the whole galaxy beyond. _'Touch. Grasp. Gently, respectfully.'_ His fall became very controlled, his mind calmer than ever as he and Katsura concentrated on meeting. Then contact, jarring through him; a quick scramble and he was in.

"Well done, my padawan," Katsura said lightly, too lightly. Kenshin squirmed, because he knew he was being both teased and admonished. "Very brave of you to go flinging yourself out the window like that. Any reason you did not simply draw the droid back to us with the Force, or even get readings on its programming?"

"Um..." It was no use. Katsura always seemed to know the truth. "Because I was trying to impress Tomoe-san," he admitted in defeat.

"You would do well, young padawan," Katsura said, his eyes serious, "to better remember our earlier conversation. This division of your loyalties is more dangerous than you know."

"How can it be a division of loyalties," Kenshin protested, "to want to serve and protect the Republic, and to admire a person who so passionately desires the same thing, in her own way?" The word 'desire' brought a slight blush to his face as a different context occurred to him.

"Are you asking me," Katsura countered, "how your loyalties can be divided if you let your attraction for this woman blur your focus on the bigger picture? Has it ever occurred to you that a situation may arise where you will not have the option of protecting everything you love at once? You might find yourself one day having to make a choice, Kenshin."

"Master-"

"Enough. Our quarry is getting more desperate, and therefore more dangerous."

Well spoken words, for both their ship and the one they were chasing were soon reduced to pieces. Kenshin wrenched himself out of the smoking hull of their vehicle and saw the would-be assassin limping away. "Master!" He took off in pursuit without stopping to wait.

Kenshin was fast, but the crowds were an impediment he was not used to - his battlefields were usually not crowded with innocent pedestrians. The assassin also seemed to have superhuman speed, for it eluded him deftly and he lost sight of it at the entrance to a suspicious-looking bar. "Master," Kenshin said as Katsura caught up. "He went in there. I mean, she. Are you sure we...?"

"What? Having doubts now?" Katsura said with a small smile. "Weren't you the one in such a rush to go tearing off to avenge your lady love?"

"Yes, but...ah...won't they throw us out since we're not...uh..." He gestured uncomfortably at the holo-ads, which made it clear that only female or transgendered patrons were welcomed.

"Well," Katsura said without missing a beat, "_you_ should have no problems, then, my young padawan. That is," he amended, "with a little touching up."

"Wh..._what_?" Kenshin sputtered, not sure he had understood right.

He had. Unfortunately.

He stood now in front of the bar entrance after Katsura had finished with him, paralyzed. His master finally gave him an impatient push. "The longer you stand idle, the more chance we have of Tomoe-san's would-be assassin escaping."

Kenshin swallowed hard and forced his feet to walk inside.

He felt really stupid. All he was wearing over his underclothes was the robe, which had been re-tied so that it resembled a shoulder-baring dress. He was barefoot, his boots having been deemed too masculine-looking in the absence of fishnet stockings. His hair had been taken down and now spilled alluringly over his shoulders. No jewelry or makeup thankfully, though he would not soon forgive Katsura for pinching his cheeks to give them a rosy glow. "This is never going to work," he mumbled under his breath.

To his shock and indignation, it did. The bouncers let him through with nothing more than leers, and as soon as he set foot in the noisy, murky room, he was on the receiving end of interested looks. Kenshin learned that it is somewhat difficult to track down an assassin when you've got three or four lustful, indecently-clad alien beauties clinging to you.

"Excuse me," he said politely, trying to unwrap someone's tentacle from around his arm and simultaneously prevent someone else's hand from creeping through the folds of his desecrated robe. "I'm trying to find someone..."

"Believe me, you've found someone," feminine voices purred at him in various alien dialects.

_'I am _so_ glad Master Katsura isn't seeing this.'_ "Forgive me, I really..." No sooner than he had extracted himself from that mess when yet another hand came slipping around his waist. "Well, hello there, you sexy little thing," a voice whispered hotly in his ear.

Being called a "sexy little thing" lost him a split second's reaction time, so that he was nearly too slow in whirling around with his lightsaber at the ready. The assassin shrieked as both her blaster and the hand that held it crashed uselessly to the floor. "We're going," Kenshin said coldly, seizing an arm of the wounded assassin and shoving her out of the bar.

They got no useful information out of the hireling, who was killed by a poisoned dart before any secrets could leave her lips. What Katsura got, however, was a chance to forever tease his apprentice about what a convincing female he made.

0-0-0-0-0

Chancellor Shishio Makoto glanced up and watched coolly as the young Jedi padawan entered his office. "Hello, Kenshin," he said, rising to greet the young man.

Kenshin, as always, reddened with embarrassed pleasure at the way Shishio treated him almost as an equal. "Hello, Chancellor," he said, unable to bring himself to return the gesture.

"I assume you're here on business?"

"Well, I, sort of, I mean yes, but it's always a pleasure to see you, too," Kenshin stammered, then briefly closed his eyes in mortification.

"Likewise," Shishio murmured dryly. "And before you ask, yes, I will persuade Senator Tomoe to return home for the sake of her best interests, if she tries to make a fuss about it."

"Oh," Kenshin said, somehow not surprised that Shishio apparently seemed to know everything. "Thank you."

"So, I heard you've been hitting the clubs lately," Shishio said casually, turning away to stroll along the room as Kenshin stepped in to follow him.

Kenshin's already colored face flared crimson. "It was for a _mission_," he gasped out firmly.

"Too bad," Shishio said, shrugging with a playful little sigh. "Blackmail material is always nice to have."

"I went into their security system and erased all the evidence," Kenshin hissed, speaking more to himself than to his companion. "No one will ever, _ever_ see me dressed like..."

Shishio, gentlemanishly refraining from pointing out the potential of fanart, tired of his teasing and changed the subject. "As far as missions go, it seems like you've managed to procure the first one entrusted to you alone."

Kenshin glanced up. "Yes, actually. I've been assigned as Tomoe-san's escort - but we'll only be gone temporarily, until we find out who's behind these assassination attempts."

"A sad business," Shishio murmured, shaking his head theatrically. "It pains me to see such a lovely young woman caught up in such danger, particularly when she has served the Republic so faithfully."

"I won't let her be hurt."

Shishio paused, smiling a little at the hard, faraway look on Kenshin's face. "Is that so?"

Kenshin blinked, returning to the present. "Yes. The senator's safety is my utmost priority. These people who want to harm her must be found and caught. I made her a promise...a long time ago...that I would protect her happiness. I intend to keep this promise."

"I see." Shishio took a moment to survey the young man before him, relishing the simple naivety which would play so beautifully into his hands. "I wish you success, Kenshin, and I congratulate you on this gesture of faith on the part of the Jedi Council."

Kenshin released a breath, looking a little pleased despite himself. "It's kind of a relief. I was so sure they hated me...so many restrictions, never trusting me, constantly muttering vaguely dire premonitions under their breath...but this has to be a good sign, that they're allowing me to do this now."

"It's because they're afraid of you, you know."

Kenshin paused, coloring again. "I...I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't-"

Shishio stopped and turned to look at him, and Kenshin abruptly shut up. "Don't pretend to be oblivious. You scare the pants off them, and you know it. You have more power than most of them have seen in a lifetime, and it's almost certain that you are to change the course of history - one way or another. They seek to bind you so that you cannot use your full talent, so that your actions will be under their full control. They trust you as much as they trust a time bomb." He grinned at the conflicted look on Kenshin's face, daring him to disagree. "Plus, they're jealous. They know you're better than them, and they hate it."

"I am...a servant of the people," Kenshin finally managed. "Nothing more. I have no intentions of - of rebellion, or carelessness, or whatever you might be suggesting. I have not set a foot outside my training-"

"Well, maybe it's time you should." Then, holding Kenshin's surprised gaze, "Lives are starting to depend on that, in case you haven't realized. Starting with the life of a certain lady in particular."

Kenshin sucked in a breath. "What do you-?"

"I mean, one day you're going to face a choice, where continuing to be loyal to the Jedi Council might conflict with other, more precious loyalties. What are you going to choose, Kenshin? Are you going to follow what your heart says is right, or will you blindly continue to follow every whim of the Council?"

"You sound...almost like Master Katsura," Kenshin said in an odd tone, "except different."

"Do I? My mistake." Shishio rolled his eyes and resumed pacing. "Very well, I see that you continue to insist on being childish about this. We'll talk again when you've decided to grow up."

Blushing again, this time in unadulterated mortification, Kenshin bowed and left.

0-0-0-0-0

"Are you sure you think he's ready, Katsura?"

"Of course."

"..._Quite_ sure?"

"I have every confidence in Kenshin. He's the best Jedi in the galaxy, you know."

The Jedi frowned. "That's the point, Katsura. He _shouldn't_ be. He's evil, can't you see it?"

"Himura Kenshin is _not_ evil," Katsura said strongly. "He is a good young man, his motives and desires more pure than even those of most of the people in our order. It's true that there is danger involved in his future...but doesn't the Dark Side always attack most earnestly the strongest warriors, who could be of most use to the side of light?"

"Still," one of the others mumbled, "I don't like him. He looks weird."

Katsura shook his head. "So says a person with googly eyes and several tentacles."

"Googly eyes and tentacles are not weird!"

"Mm hm," Katsura agreed politely.

"But honestly, Katsura-san, do you really think that young Himura is the 'Chosen One' and all that?"

"Whether he is or not would probably be unwise to gamble on," Katsura said thoughtfully. "But in the end, I don't think it matters. Chosen One or not, Kenshin will definitely be making things happen. Our job is to make sure that the only things that fall apart as a result are the ones we want to do so."

0-0-0-0-0

"Buddy!"

Preoccupied by his meeting with the chancellor, Kenshin turned around in surprise to find someone hurrying up to him through the throng of people who were moving more sedately through the hallways. "I'izuka?"

"Kenshin! Man, it's been too long!" The cheerful humanoid came up and gave Kenshin a slap on the back in greeting. "Heard you been up to some crazy stuff, man! Pulled some heroics in the Conbef Rebellion, almost got eaten by a giant flower on Riin'bon, even rumors you've been cavorting around the red light district in drag-"

"That's NOT TRUE," Kenshin stormed.

"Whatever, man. Anyway, you're whisking away the Nubian senator now, aren't ya?" I'izuka's eyes twinkled. "You planning to elope?"

"Of course not! I hope you haven't been spreading rumors," Kenshin said hotly.

"Just teasing, just teasing," I'izuka laughed. "I know you're trying to get her out of the line of fire. Hey...where you headed, anyway?"

"Um...I'm not really supposed to tell," Kenshin said uncomfortably.

"I bet it's Naboo. Pretty obvious, huh? Lady'll be most happy back home, eh?"

Kenshin said nothing, though he sighed a little.

"Heard Naboo's a beautiful place," I'izuka went on conversationally. "Even if the name does sound like something you'd be offering in your little drag show down in the red light-"

Kenshin's eyes flashed.

"Anyway!" I'izuka laughed again, though the sound seemed a little forced this time. "You look like you could use a drink. Come on, buddy! On me."

Kenshin sighed. "Well, all right, but not too much, and I can't stay long. I've got to meet Tomoe-san later on."

0-0-0-0-0

It would have been hard for most people to tell that Prince Yukishiro was nervous, but his sister knew him well. She saw the too-wide eyes and the intensity of his gaze fixed on her, the subconscious hunching of his shoulders that he did when he was upset. She smiled when she noticed once again that he had shot up taller than her. He was extremely disciplined in his physical training and it showed in the well-defined muscles, but she wished he was not so painfully lean. She was sure he wasn't eating enough.

"Yuki," she said, taking his hands and smiling reassuringly. "I know you'll do a fine job in my place. I am leaving everything to you." She reached up, and he obligingly bent his head so she could kiss him. "Farewell, little brother," she said softly.

"...Neesan." He was kneading her fingers absently, gazing into her face as if afraid to look away. "I won't let you down. And..." His eyes suddenly hardened, in that way that she did not like to admit frightened her. "And don't worry. Whoever's trying to hurt you - I'll kill them. I'll track them down and kill them myself. You don't have to worry, because I'll keep you safe."

"Oh, Yuki." She had to be careful in her phrasing, not wishing to arouse any more resentment towards Kenshin than her brother already felt. "It's you who have no need to worry, dear one. You won't be able to attend properly to your duties here if you are distracted. Please rest your mind, I'm in good hands. The Jedi have sworn to keep me safe, and to eliminate this threat. Your place is here for now, Yuki. Hopefully we will meet again soon."

He stared at her darkly, not arguing, but she knew that her words had done absolutely nothing to change his mind. Holding back a sigh, she laid her hand gently against his face for a moment, then turned and walked away. Kenshin, who had been waiting a discreet distance away, bowed respectfully to Yukishiro, who only glared and whirled around to storm off.

"I'm sorry," Tomoe apologized as she came up.

"No need," Kenshin said with a wry smile, reaching to carry Tomoe's bags for her. "He doesn't seem to hate me as much...he didn't call me any names this time."

"He didn't speak to you at all."

"An improvement, don't you think?"

She chuckled sadly and shook her head. "Someday, Kenshin, he will learn to trust you. It is one of the deepest wishes of my heart, that the two of you could become friends. Somehow I think you would suit each other very well, if only given the chance."

"As you say, my lady," Kenshin said, politely refraining from disagreement.

Katsura was there to see them off as they approached the ship that was to take them to Naboo. "Senator," he greeted, nodding his head.

"Master Jedi." Tomoe gave a grim little smile. "I was told that you'll be off searching for my would-be killer while Kenshin-kun and I are on Naboo."

"I will do my best to make sure that your stay is a short one," Katsura promised. "I know how much it means to you to be here at this time."

"Thank you, Master Jedi."

Katsura nodded, then glanced at her companion with a little smile. "Take care of her, Kenshin."

"No need to tell me, Master," Kenshin replied with a slightly cheeky grin. The three of them bowed to each other, then parted ways.

After Kenshin made sure that Tomoe was settled in her quarters on the ship, he followed her to the observation deck, where they watched together as Coruscant fell away and the vast windows filled with a black ocean of stars.

"Kenshin-kun," Tomoe said softly. "Is it wrong that I feel so happy to be going back?"

He was not sure what to say. He knew that what was going on in the Senate was weighing heavily on her mind, but he also knew that her heart longed for her lush, beautiful homeland. "I'm sure that you've been under a lot of stress in the capital. It will be good to rest, to have a brief time to restore yourself before heading into battle again."

Tomoe smiled and glanced over at him. "Well said. Did you really mean that, or were you just telling me exactly what I wanted to hear?"

"Oh! Well, no- I mean, I could tell that's what you were thinking, but-" He drew in a breath to calm himself, realizing that he was babbling again. She noticed - the amused expression on her face tinged his cheeks slightly pink.

"I really meant it, Tomoe-san. Your work here is important to you, important to everyone, and I respect that." He raised his hand as if to touch her, but then quickly dropped it again. "I also know that the past few months have been hard on you, and that you miss your home."

He knew that because he missed his own home, too...much, much more than he even thought he would. The sand-worn houses, the silent dunes, and his sisters most of all. He hoped with all his heart that his premonitions were wrong, that they were safe. "You should regain your strength, Tomoe-san. You're probably going to need it."

She gazed at him for a long time, so that he squirmed uncomfortably and wondered if he had said something wrong.

"Kenshin."

He felt suddenly giddy, as if his breath had been taken away.

"I feel like...I've known you all my life. Not just as a young boy from the past, but...seeing you now, it's as if you were never gone all these years." She moved a little closer. "Kenshin...it feels strange to hear you speak to me with such formality, when we should be such close friends." Her face was the one that was slightly flushed now. "Do you...agree?"

"Yes - Tomoe!" Her name came out of him with a breathless gasp, and they stared at each other, their faces closer together than either expected. "Tomoe-sa- Tomoe." His hand drifted up again, and this time came to rest on her shoulder. "I've felt it...all along. I wish I'd known sooner that...that you did, too."

She closed her eyes and leaned her head against him. "Kenshin..."

"Yes?"

"You are training to be a Jedi. I'm sorry. I know that this is...not what you need right now."

His arm around her tightened. "No. Don't say that. During all the years that we were apart...I never stopped thinking about you. And then, the moment I saw you again, more beautiful than ever - there was never any choice about it. About how I feel about you, Tomoe."

She smiled. Then she suddenly blinked and raised her head again. "Gratified as I am to hear that, don't you think we're getting a little bit ahead?"

He gave her such a sad look that she could not help smiling again. "It doesn't matter." She took his hand and led him to walk slowly with her around the deck. "Still, no matter how we may feel about it, facts are still facts. This...attractive arrangement that neither of us can deny we're considering is not practical at all."

"I don't care."

She hid another smile. "I can't imagine that your master would approve."

"..."

Tomoe stopped and gave him a compassionate look. "How are things going with him, anyway? Is it difficult, trying to learn under him when your ideas sometimes clash so greatly?"

Kenshin gave her a surprised look. "No, not at all. Master Katsura is very wise and patient. He knows what he's doing, and I trust him. He's actually..."

Kenshin looked a little sheepish. "To tell the truth, Tomoe, he's the only Jedi I really trust. I mean, not that I question their loyalty, not at all. It's just that, personally...well, Master Katsura is the only Jedi in whose hands I would not mind placing my life, if things were to get ugly." The sad look on his face returned as he said thoughtfully, "I think he's the only one who believes that I truly am ready for the trials. I can't help suspecting that the reason I have not been permitted to undertake them yet is because the other Jedi don't want me to."

Tomoe eyed him wryly. "So there are no problems between you and Master Katsura at all."

"No, of course not. Why?"

She smiled again and looked away. "You're terrible for this role, you know."

He looked alarmed. "What?"

"Nothing."

0-0-0-0-0

Katsura sat in the Jedi library, poring over actual, honest-to-goodness ink-on-paper books, because what he was searching for was absolutely nowhere to be found in the computer system.

"May I help you?"

Katsura glanced up at an elderly librarian. "Yes, actually," he said, fingering the assassin's dart wrapped up in a bundle in his pocket. "You see, I'm working on a project involving a star system which a reliable source has informed me is called Kamino. However, I can find no trace of the Kamino system anywhere in the library database. I was hoping to find some information in older records. Tell me, do you know anything about Kamino, or the cloners who are supposed to live there?"

"Kamino?" the librarian repeated with a frown. "Well, let me see..." Katsura shook his head as she went to a computer terminal, but politely allowed her to continue. The sooner she could see for herself, the sooner she could help him for real. "Hm." The librarian straightened and gave him a haughty look. "There is no listing for the Kamino system. I'm afraid that your source was mistaken."

"He was not," Katsura said unwaveringly. "Kamino _does_ exist, and I'm beginning to think that someone might have tampered with the data on it-"

"If a system does not appear in our records," the librarian cut in harshly, "it _does not exist_." She swept off, looking highly offended.

"Thank you, Ma'am," Katsura called after her, then shook his head and got up to leave. He was wasting his time. Even if Kamino was apparently invisible, gravity did not lie. It was obvious that _something_ existed in those coordinates out in space, even if it had been erased on the holo-map. There seemed to be nothing for it than to fly to the invisible star system and see for himself whether or not it existed.

0-0-0-0-0

Tomoe was gladly welcomed home, beloved even after her service as Queen of Naboo was over. "My lady," a large man with only one arm boomed at her. "We are delighted that you have returned."

"Thank you, Kujiranami-san," she said graciously.

"You've gone legal," Kenshin said in surprise, craning his head to look up into the man's face. The last time they had met, Kujiranami had been a criminal lurking in the woods. Now he was well-dressed and apparently had some sort of government post.

Kujiranami peered down at him. "Oh. I remember you. Heh, you're a little less shrimpy than I remember."

"...Thank you."

"Kujiranami-san, we need to lie low for a while," Tomoe explained. "I'm sure you heard of the assassination attempts."

"Yes, my lady. It is a great relief to us that you are safe. Is the red-haired kid your bodyguard?"

"Yes."

"I'm not really a kid anymore," Kenshin grumbled, but only under his breath. Tomoe smiled and patted his arm soothingly.

"We'll send you to the lake house where you used to spend your summers," Kujiranami offered. "I hope the arrangement pleases you."

"It does indeed, Kujiranami-san," Tomoe said warmly. "It is a very romantic setting."

Everyone stared at her.

"Come, Kenshin," she said, unperturbed, and led the way with her back straight and her chin high. Kenshin scrambled to follow her, trying to ignore the amazed whistles of the assembled Nubians echoing behind him.

0-0-0-0-0

It figured that he would arrive right in the middle of a pouring rainstorm. (His irritation only lasted until he learned that it ALWAYS rained on Kamino.) Katsura pulled his hood up, disembarked, and hurried up to the clear doors of the building, which were exuding warm light.

The cloners were waiting for him. Katsura blinked as a cheerful-looking woman in an apron bowed and greeted him. "Welcome, Master Jedi! We have been expecting you. My name is Sekihara Tae, please let me know if you need anything during your stay! If you will be kind enough to follow me, the Prime Minister is waiting for you."

"...Wonderful," Katsura murmured, trying hard to act as if he was _supposed_ to be expected.

Apparently, the Republic had ordered a clone army and had forgotten to tell anyone. Katsura stood with the pleased Prime Minister, overlooking a vast room where highly organized swarms of clones moved around like ants. Eating, learning, training...arming themselves...

"Wonderful, aren't they?" the Prime Minister prompted happily.

"Incredible," Katsura agreed, his heart sinking. Even taking accelerated growth into account, the clones were far too old. The implications were frightening. The Republic had not ordered this army in response to the recent movement by the Separatist systems - someone had ordered this army in secret, anticipating the war to come_._ More likely, _planning_ the war to come.

_'There is evil in this,'_ Katsura found himself thinking. _'No one person should have this kind of power. No one should be able to do this without anyone knowing - without the Jedi Council itself having any idea.'_ "Sir," he asked, "do you think I could meet the man from whom all these soldiers were cloned?"

"Certainly," his companion answered easily, continuing to speak as they began walking again. "This current army is actually our secondary attempt. We had originally tried to clone Miss Sekihara, but..." He chuckled. "That did not turn out so well."

"Sekihara-san?" Katsura said in surprise. "She was cloned?"

"Oh yes, but the results turned out rather - less than military. Several of her clones work in the kitchens, you see, and the rest now serve as maids."

"Ah."

"We don't like things to go to waste here," the Prime Minister went on, oblivious to Katsura's wonder. "The Saes' service has more than earned back the cost of creating them."

"I see."

Katsura found out what the 'Saes' were when a pretty young woman who looked exactly like a younger Tae smiled brightly as she opened the door to the room of the man Katsura wished to see. "Oh, hello, sir! And this must be the Jedi who has come to inspect the army at last! I hope you are pleased, Master Jedi."

"It's an impressive army," he said, noting the tag reading 'Number 18' pinned to her apron. "Sekihara...Sae-san, is it?"

"Indeed, sir! Number 18." She indicated her identification tag. "I'll tell Fujita-san that you've come to see him," she said cheerily, and bustled off.

_'Fujita,'_ Katsura thought, filing the name away for future investigation. "So, who is this Fujita-san who agreed to this?" he asked conversationally.

"Fujita Gorou-san is a bounty hunter," the Prime Minister explained. "Nice man, very obliging, though he has rather creepy eyes in my opinion..."

Katsura fully agreed when he met the man, whose uber-politeness could not quite mask the creepiness practically oozing from every pore. "Master Jedi! How truly wonderful to meet you, it is an honor. I hope you were pleased with the army."

"Very impressive, Fujita-san," Katsura said again. "I suppose they paid you pretty well for this."

The cheerfully squinched eyes slitted open, just a little. "Not bad pay, yes. Though my real reward is over in the next room." He turned his head and called, "Hajime! Come out here a minute, I want you to meet someone."

There was a clattering noise, and then a young boy stepped out of one of the small rooms off the main one. "What is it, Father?"

"Hajime, I'd like you to meet Jedi Master Katsura Kogorou. He's here to inspect the army."

Katsura and young Hajime surveyed each other. The boy was about ten or eleven years old, tall and striking, if not exactly handsome. He had the same slicked-back hair and long, stringy bangs as his "father," putting Katsura in mind of a bamboo curtain. His face was already showing signs of the definition it would have when he was older, but it was the eyes that really caught attention - hard and cold, and far more intelligent than would be expected in one so young.

"Nice to meet you," Katsura said.

Hajime inclined his head without saying a word.

"He's shy," Fujita put in cheerfully, earning (to Katsura's interest) a silently annoyed look from the boy. "But really, he's a very nice child, pleasant as all-getout once you get to know him." His smirk made it obvious that he was teasing the boy or putting on an act. Katsura was certain that "pleasant" could not be an accurate description of young Hajime.

"Tell me, Fujita-san," he said. "Have you been to the capital lately?"

The bounty hunter shifted from foot to foot and grinned. "Maybe. Why?"

"If he has, it's none of your business," the boy said shortly.

"Actually, it is," Katsura said softly, thinking of the danger Tomoe was in. He did not miss the look that was exchanged between father and son: Hajime's fierce, questioning scowl, and Fujita's quelling smile. "Tell me, Fujita-san, how did you learn of this job?"

Fujita shrugged. "Some kid contacted me, asked me to do it. It was easy and paid well; I didn't ask questions."

"A kid?"

"Yeah. Young guy, one of those earnest, girly-looking morons, going on about the Separatist movement and some old girlfriend. Don't ask me, I didn't pay much attention after I signed the job agreement."

"Old girlfriend," Katsura said slowly. "I suppose you wouldn't have remembered her name."

"No, sorry. Gorgeous girl, though. He showed me a holo."

"I see. Well, forgive me for taking up your time. I need to be on my way to report back now." Katsura exchanged bows with the bounty hunter and left, thinking hard.

0-0-0-0-0

"This is beautiful," Kenshin breathed. The two of them were standing on the terrace, watching the sun begin to set over the lake. "This world is so lovely...I can't believe I never really noticed when I was here before."

"There are certain kinds of beauty that children cannot see, until they have grown up into men and women."

Kenshin turned to look at her, wondering if he had imagined the suggestive note in her voice.

Judging from the look on her face, he had not. "Tomoe," he breathed.

Slowly, her eyes trailing over the lake as if that was all she was interested in, she moved past him and went to lean on the railing, gazing out over the water.

Her gown was backless. Kenshin swallowed hard, his eyes fixed on the broad expanse of flesh between her waist and her hair. "You...did you, ah...wear that dress - on purpose?"

"I don't choose my wardrobe," she said mildly, still apparently fascinated by the lake. "I suspect it was chosen to invite certain lines."

Kenshin blinked. "Lines? ...Oh!" He hurried over, feeling so in love he barely knew what to do with himself. It was almost a relief to already know what to say. "I don't like sand, Tomoe!"

She glanced at him. "Is that so."

His face was beginning to heat up. He had not realized before how lame it sounded aloud. "Uh...yes, and, um...you- that is, your skin is very soft. Not like sand." He reached up tentatively and touched his fingertip to that luscious expanse of soft, lovely flesh. She had a little mole just on the edge of her shoulder blade. He desperately fought the sudden urge to lean forward and kiss it.

"Kenshin."

"Yes...Tomoe?" he whispered, barely able to speak.

"That was the most unromantic come-on I've ever heard," she said flatly.

"Oh." He could not disagree. "I want to kiss your mole. The one on your back."

She smiled a little. "Better. At least, it is when you say it."

Yet he found that he did not have the courage to do such a thing after all. He moved forward, then paused, and kind of hovered helplessly, intoxicated by her white plum scent. So she finally leaned to meet him, and their lips touched. Something sparked between them; Kenshin, with no thought at all, took her in his arms and figuratively kissed the snot out of her.

"Mm," she finally murmured afterwards. She opened her eyes and smiled at him. "_Much_ better."

0-0-0-0-0

_"What have you learned, Katsura-san?"_

"The bounty hunter Fujita Gorou is probably the assassin we're looking for," Katsura yelled into his commlink over the sound of the endless Kamino rain. "Somehow, a clone army was ordered for the Republic without the knowledge of the Jedi Council. We're getting stupid in our old age!"

_"The Sith are growing more powerful. This is bad."_

"I quite agree!"

_"And with some sarcasm, I see. Very well, Katsura-san. We will keep this secret from the Senate so that our revealed weakness does not draw enemies."_

"Uh huh."

_"You don't sound very convinced, Katsura-san."_

"Keeping the Sith threat a secret seems like an unwise move to me, but I'm not in charge of such decisions. Now, I will attempt to capture Fujita, but will probably fail, so I'll get a tracker onto his ship just in case. Wish me luck."

_"Good luck, Katsura-san."_

"It seems you are not lacking in sarcasm yourself," Katsura replied, amused. He switched off the communicator and murmured, missing his apprentice's help, "I wish Kenshin was here..."

0-0-0-0-0

Yet Kenshin was not on Kamino, he was on the lovely planet of Naboo, picnicking with its lovely former queen. "Um...pardon?"

Tomoe tugged her neckline farther up, noting his blush. "I was asking if you've had any sweethearts before."

"Of course not!" he burst out, surprised that she could think so. "What little time I even _had_ to think of girls...well...I mean, you-" He could not say it while looking her in the face. "You've always been in my head," he mumbled to the grass, "ever since I was little. At first I admired you, loved you as a friend...then, I...well...I never even bothered to think about other girls, they- you could tell at a glance that they...that they could never measure up to you."

He jumped at the light caress of her fingers on his face. "My poor darling. I really shouldn't tease you so much."

He looked up at her in surprise, and was relieved to find her still smiling softly, with that expression of hers that always promised secrets. "Tomoe?" he ventured.

"Mm?"

"I...well, you told me once that you were engaged to be married. Do you...?" He swallowed. "Never mind."

She smiled again and leaned in close. "Since the time I met you, Kenshin - I could never think of anyone else." Then she brushed her lips against his. He moved instinctively to respond, and for a while the beauty of the meadow around them went unheeded.

That night, the two of them retired alone to the den after supper, each silently musing in the deep shadows as firelight flickered over faces and cleavage.

"You're wearing one of those suggestive dresses again," Kenshin finally murmured.

Tomoe modestly re-arranged her neckline, prompting him to guiltily alter his line of vision. "Kenshin," she murmured back. "You know that this will never work out between us."

"Don't say that."

She looked at him seriously. "It's true - and you know it. Kenshin...what are we going to do?"

He leaned to kiss her softly on the forehead - she noted with some amusement that he had to kneel up to do so. "We're going to trust, Tomoe. All we need is each other, isn't it?"

"I want...the two of us to be able to fight, together. I want us to still be able to work for the good of the people. Can we really do that if we're together, Kenshin?"

"We will find a way." He smiled a little. "And in the meantime, let's kiss some more."

"I like your plan."

0-0-0

_We had known from the beginning that we might not be allowed to be together...but in the end, we were torn apart in a way neither of us expected._

_To be continued..._

Author's Notes: I've loved the original Star Wars trilogy ever since I first saw it as a kid, so there's nothing to discuss there.

When I first saw the prequels, I liked "The Phantom Menace," disliked "Attack of the Clones," and thought that "Revenge of the Sith" had a lot of potential that had not been lived up to. As a whole, I hated the prequels because I felt that they were ruined by horrendous writing and acting.

Now, years later, after re-watching these movies several times and coming to understand them better from working on this fic, I've altered my opinion a little. Although none of them top the original trilogy, I've decided that I still like Menace except for Jake Lloyd's acting. There were some really good elements in that movie, like Darth Maul. (And yes, I did like Jar Jar, shut up. He's cute.)

I've also now decided that I really like Revenge, especially the whole opening sequence, which was the only part of the prequels that came close to the humorous, light-hearted adventure of the original trilogy. The jokes are a little lamer than they could be, but I still laughed. I also now recognize the brilliance of Hayden Christensen's performance in that movie - he really does a good job, despite acting opposite Natalie Portman as a love interest...she was not great... The romantic dialogue is still ridiculously badly written, but at least those parts had a much smaller role in the movie and were therefore easier to overlook. Overall, I enjoy this movie now a lot more than I did at first.

Attack of the Clones. Um, yeah; even though I don't hate it as much as I used to, the sucky writing and acting in some scenes still make me want to scream. They _ruined_ Threepio, and I could not stand watching the "romantic" scenes. Anakin is such a creep in this movie.

So, I think **there are several scenes in this fic where my frustration with the prequels comes out very obviously.** **(I did not warm up to the movies until long after I'd written most of the drafts of this fic.)** **I apologize for the over-sarcastic dialogue and OOCness and breaking the fourth wall too heavily**, but at this point I'm just _tired_ of this fic being a WIP, I want to get it over with already - **and to tell the truth, most of the frustration humor still amuses me. So, sorry! This one's kind of a lost cause as far as satisfactorily fixing things, but I promise I'll never post an incomplete fic again.**


	10. The Best Sake In the Galaxy

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode X - The Best Sake In the Galaxy** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

_This one will never know if such pain and suffering could have been avoided if he had only listened to Shishou from the beginning._

0-0-0

"No...no...Akane-nee, Kasumi-nee, Sakura-nee...NOOO-! _Ow_! Ow..." Kenshin winced and rubbed at his butt, which he had landed on after falling out of bed. He blinked muzzily around the room. It was still deep night; the moon shone quietly through the open doors to the balcony.

Sighing, Kenshin untangled the sheets from around his legs and went in search of a shirt. It was cold...but more than that, vibes from countless distant fangirls were making his bare flesh creep.

Early in the morning, before breakfast, Tomoe found him sitting on the railing of the balcony, gazing out across the lake. She came up beside him and stood in companionable silence for a while, leaning her arms against the railing. Finally she said, "Good morning."

"Mm...oh- Good morning, Tomoe." He smiled a little sheepishly. "Forgive me for not greeting you, I was...preoccupied."

"With your nightmares."

Their eyes met. His were startled, hers like calm waters. "My...?"

"I heard you."

"Oh." He dropped his head, letting his bangs hide his face. It felt nice when Tomoe leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Is it about your sisters on Tattooine?"

"I miss them," he said softly. "I've worried about their safety ever since I left."

"Ten years is a long time to worry," she murmured.

He blew out a frustrated breath, and she lifted her head to look at him. "I've always worried, but my fears seemed unfounded until - until just recently." He breathed again, trying to gather his thoughts. "Lately I've had a bad feeling...I keep seeing them in my dreams, suffering...it's so vivid, like I'm actually there, watching. I feel so...so helpless."

"You're going, aren't you."

He looked at her. "I hadn't decided for sure until this moment, but - yes."

She nodded. "Very well. I am going with you."

"Wait- what? You can't!"

"And since when does an upstart young apprentice tell a senator what to do?" she said coldly, and turned to drift back inside.

"I- that's not what I- Wait, Tomoe! I didn't mean- I'm glad you're coming!"

0-0-0-0-0

The Hiruma brothers were looking rather the worse for wear these days. Too poor to keep slaves anymore, tired and unshaven with unkempt clothes and unwashed hair, even their seediest customers were growing leery of visiting the increasingly disreputable mechanical parts shop. That was why Gohei was so wearily delighted when two people entered the shop, especially since they looked rich.

"Welcome to Hiruma Mechanics!" he cried at once, rushing around the counter to shake the hands of his new customers. Both wore cloaks. The woman's beautiful face was barely visible within her luxurious sky-blue hood, and the face of the man in the black cloak was in complete shadow. "We have the best parts in the whole region, how may I-" He suddenly stopped. "You're not police or bill collectors or anything, are you?" he asked fearfully.

"Hiruma Gohei. It's been a long time. How's business?" It was the one in black who had spoken, who now moved aside and picked up one of the broken droids the brothers had been too lazy to work on.

Gohei frowned. "Have we met before?" He was about to order the stranger to get his paws off the merchandise, when the man tipped back his head and let the hood fall back, revealing a dry smile.

Gohei froze. He would know that red hair and that smile anywhere. "It...it can't be...Shinta?"

Kenshin made one last adjustment and then set the droid on its wheels. He touched the power switch and watched it scuttle off to work. Then he turned back to Gohei. "Hiruma," he said with a nod.

Gohei frowned, then laughed ruefully. "Sounds weird hearin' my name coming from you."

Kenshin straightened, and his face suddenly grew hard. "As you might have guessed, we didn't come here to visit. Tell me, Hiruma - are my sisters still here?"

Gohei swallowed. "Well, uh...that is- Let me get my brother!" He hurried off into the back of the shop, yelling frantically for Kihei to come and sort the mess out as always.

Kihei was quick to appear, and he stopped dead for a moment when he laid eyes on Kenshin. "Shinta...so it's true. You really have come back!"

"I have come for my sisters," Kenshin said sharply. "Where are they?"

The brothers exchanged an uneasy look. "They're, uh...well...hey, how good are you with that light-sword thingy?"

Kenshin drew and ignited it in one move. "Would you like me to show you?"

"Eep! No, no! We sold them to a nice guy, a _really_ nice old geezer, lives out on a moisture farm in the boonies! Don't hurt us!"

Kenshin frowned. "A moisture farmer? What is his name?"

"L...Let me go check the records," Kihei said weakly, stumbling to the back room again and rather alarmed when Kenshin went with him.

With the threat removed, Gohei sighed in relief and then eyed Shinta's lady-companion appreciatively. "So, toots, wanna check out the master who taught Shinta all his moves?"

Tomoe, already irritated from her lack of lines in this scene, drew her blaster and pointed it at Gohei's crotch. "Please do not speak to me again."

Gohei's mouth fell open. "But - but you're a _girl_! You're not supposed to play with guns!"

"I played with guns in the Nubian Revolution. Some people thought I was pretty good. Unfortunately, you won't be able to discuss my abilities with them, because they are all dead."

"_Niisaaaaaaaan_!" Gohei shrieked, fleeing after his brother and thinking that he ought to have known better than coming on to a Jedi's girlfriend.

0-0-0-0-0

"Father, that Jedi is following us."

Fujita glanced at his young clone, then at his spaceship's rearview mirror. "I don't see anyone. You're imagining things."

Hajime sighed.

0-0-0-0-0

The first person to greet Kenshin and Tomoe at the moisture farm was - Tsubame. "Master Shinta!" the droid exclaimed, promptly dropping the basket of tools it had been carrying.

Kenshin smiled and reached to pick up the scattered objects. "It's really good to see you, Tsubame-chan. They've given me the name 'Kenshin,' by the way."

"Oh...oh, please, let me," the droid said in distress, but Kenshin waved it away.

"Don't be silly, I'm more flexible than you, and it's no trouble." He grinned as he straightened up and carefully placed the basket back into its metal arms. "Besides, I was the one who startled you into dropping it, right?"

"Oh...well...that is..."

"You look so beautiful now that you're complete, Tsubame-chan," Tomoe said warmly.

"Oh!" the droid gasped. "Well, I- it's difficult to keep clean here, I know that my plating is in such terrible shape...but, oh, Tomoe-san! It is so good to see you again."

Tomoe smiled and patted Tsubame's shoulder. "It's good to see you, too."

"Tsubame-chan," Kenshin asked earnestly, "I've come looking for my sisters. Are they all right?"

"Um...well..." Tsubame creaked nervously. "Please, come into the shade, I will fetch Master - that is, my new master at once." It inclined its head a little. "Forgive me, Master Shinta - I mean, Master Kenshin, I told them that I belonged to you, but I was sold off anyway..."

"It's all right," he assured her. "As long as you are well cared for, I don't mind."

The middle-aged moisture farmer who soon came wheeling out to greet them was pretty rugged and scruffy looking, skinny but wiry. Yet his eyes gleamed and his laugh was infectious from the first. "So! We have visitors today, Tsubame-chan?"

"Y-Yes sir," Tsubame stammered, sounding pleased despite being flustered. "This is my maker, Master Shinta - I mean, Master Kenshin. And this is-"

Kenshin noticed, to his surprise, that Tomoe had been staring at the old man with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. Then she suddenly moved forward, threw her arms around the old man's neck, and burst into tears.

"There, there now," he said gently, patting her back. "I'm glad to see you too, honey."

"Father," she whispered, pulling back with some effort and gazing at him with swimming eyes. "Your leg is injured...what happened?"

_'Father?'_ Kenshin thought in astonishment.

The old man sighed, taking her hand in his and patting it sadly. "Perhaps you two had better come inside."

He told the story as Tsubame served cool drinks. Kenshin soon forgot to continue politely sipping. He sat silently, listening with bowed head. Akane, Kasumi, Sakura...those loving, beautiful girls, freed by their new master and adopted as daughters, captured one morning when they had gone out to work, disappearing into the desert sands as if they had been taken by ghosts...

"You hurt your leg going after them, didn't you," Tomoe said softly.

Her father nodded. "Thirty of us went out, including Kasumi's new husband and Sakura's sweetheart - only four came back. I'm sorry, lad," he said compassionately to Kenshin. "They've been gone a month. It's likely that...well, you probably don't need me to tell you."

"I'm going after them."

Father and daughter looked silently at Kenshin, whose face was covered by his long bangs.

"Tomoe..." Kenshin looked up. "Will you stay here and wait for me?"

She nodded. "I hope you're able to bring them back safely, Kenshin."

He released a sudden breath, then stood and bowed to the old man.

"You're leaving now?" the farmer said in surprise. "Perhaps you ought to-"

"As you said, they have been in enemy hands for a month. I will not make them wait for me an instant longer than they have to."

Tomoe walked with Kenshin outside, her heart full but her words frozen. She wanted so much to touch him, but could not bring herself to. She was almost afraid that he would leave and possibly get hurt or killed, without a word spoken between them, when he paused before mounting the speeder and glanced back at her. "Tomoe, is that really your father in there?"

"Yes," she said quietly. "He was...exiled, a long time ago. When Yuki was a child."

To her surprise, he nodded and asked no more questions. "To think, it was your father who set my sisters free..." He paused. "And took them on as his own family. Does that make you and me brother and sister?"

"Of course not."

He smiled a little before leaning to kiss her. "I'll be back soon, Tomoe," he promised. "I'll have all three of them with me. It will be all right."

0-0-0-0-0

After eavesdropping on a roomful of suspicious-looking aliens, Katsura sat in the shadows, frowning in concentration as he drafted the message he would have to find a way to deliver to far-off Coruscant.

_Dear Jedi Council,_

_Sure enough, after an uncomfortable fight in heavy rain, I was unable to stop the bounty hunter Fujita Gorou from leaving Kamino, so I threw a tracker on his ship and followed him to Planet Geonosis._

_Just as anyone would think from his squinty eyes, he is a bad man who is plotting with the Separatist leader Kiyosato Akira to take over the galaxy. Or something. In any case, Fujita's not really the important one; he was hired by some grudgeful viceroy to assassinate the Senator of Naboo, but that's only filling a plot hole and not of any real interest. In fact, none of this is, I am just killing time until Kenshin comes back onscreen._

_Anyway, if Kiyosato (or whoever is controlling him, hint, hint) has his way, the Separatists with their outdated droid army are plotting treason, yada yada yada, even though we know from the get-go that they have no chance because clone armies are the new fashion. In other words, we had better nip this clone army thing in the bud if we don't want to spawn some sequels. An exercise in futility, I admit, since we're already in a prequel to begin with._

_The point is that the Jedi are in trouble, and if we at the very least don't want an installment titled _Return_ of the Jedi, I suggest we work very hard to make sure that the Jedi Order maintains a consistent existence and is not required to return at all. Again, this is an exercise in futility, since if Kenshin the Last Jedi survives, apparently it's all good._

_Love,_

_Katsura_

_P.S. I am sensing through the Force a very strong feeling of Impending Doom. Make of that what you will._

Katsura read over his draft, then laughed and deleted it. "Let me try that again."

0-0-0-0-0

Hiko gritted his teeth when he realized he was out of sake. Trekking over the desolate dunes of Tattooine was NOT FUN in the first place, but without sake to take the edge of misery off, it was unbearable.

_'Unbearable?'_ he thought in disgust. _'Remember who you're talking to, idiot.'_ Himself, apparently, which was pretty pathetic. In any case, nothing, not even a lack of sake, was going to beat Hiko Seijuurou the Thirteenth, though it was going to make him pretty irritable. As if he hadn't been to begin with.

_'That little brat...it's all his fault.'_ Hiko sighed, knowing he was being unfair. After all, who was the one who had decided to go tromping off after the little red-haired brat anyway? _'Still! He didn't even say he was in town!'_ Granted, the extent of Hiko and Shinta's relationship had not gone very far...for all he knew, the brat had completely forgotten him. Kids were often stupid and inconsiderate like that.

Hiko stopped walking. "Fine!" he shouted. "I'm the one who's being foolish this time!" His voice dropped after that painful admission. "But I swear, it will be the last." He trudged on again.

Shinta...the sweet-faced little slave, the racing prodigy who had a habit of capturing people's hearts, or at least their attention (if the people in question, like himself or the boy's ex-masters, had no hearts). The boy seemed completely artless, yet he had managed to get himself freed and whisked away to an adventurous life as a Jedi Knight. That couldn't have been an accident, could it? Especially since it had happened _right_ when Hiko had begun to entertain the idea that perhaps he had found his successor at last.

Hiko grinned. "Now that you're back, kid...don't think you're going to escape a second time." He would have to assess, of course, to see what the boy had made of his Jedi training. But if Shinta still showed promise, Hiko was determined to take him on as his own apprentice. The years were passing, after all, and unless he managed to get his hands on a hyperdrive generator soon, there was very slim chance of anyone else suitable showing up on this rotten piece of the middle of nowhere. "You hear that, Shinta? You're the one. The best I've got, sadly. So don't you dare disappoint me."

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin easily got past the sentries on the outer perimeter of the Tusken camp and slipped into the tent where he could sense a fading life force.

Kasumi and Sakura were already dead. As he held Akane in his arms, looking at her ravaged smile, his mind, for a while, seemed to go blank. He could see nothing except his sisters, as they were when he was a child, as they should have been; laughing together as they walked down the street, humming as they went about their work, teasing each other and hugging him, their love spilling over through their expressions, through every touch.

He could _feel_ Akane leaving him, knew it the moment when her spirit departed. He knew she had spoken to him, but her last words were lost somewhere in his mind, as if they had entered but never found the right place to be delivered. Perhaps one day he would remember what she had said. In his heart, he already knew: _"We love you, we're so proud of you."_ He had always known that, they had told him every day of his life with them, in action if not in words. That did not seem to matter now. He couldn't think of anything that _did_ matter, just a single truth, that he was sitting here holding a dead girl in his arms, and nothing else existed.

"Move, you fool!"

The shout passed through Kenshin's mind with only the dimmest perception. He heard noises, more shouting mixed with the alien cries of the Tuskens; the sound of weapons crashing, commotion throughout the camp. Something warm was trickling down his face...blood. Kenshin touched his face and now stared at the crimson wetness staining his fingers. He was not in pain, or at least his body was not. This was not his blood.

He put his arm back around Akane and held her close.

"Get up, boy! GET UP!"

"Go away," Kenshin mumbled. His body suddenly rocked forward as pain blasted through his shoulder. Distractedly, he saw the butt of a Tusken staff and realized that he had been attacked. It was not something he particularly cared about at the moment.

"Get off him!" A wet slicing sound, as of a blade through meat. "Boy - Shinta - get to your feet RIGHT NOW and draw your weapon, or I'll leave you to these dogs!"

Kenshin blinked. "Shinta?" he whispered. Hazily, he looked around and saw utter chaos and devastation. Somehow, half the tent had collapsed, the fabric ripped to shreds. He was surrounded by Tusken corpses; more warriors with their spine-chilling cries were swarming around a large figure wrapped in a blood-stained white cloak.

Hiko swept his sword through three of the worst annoyances, which gave him just enough breathing space to snatch up a pot and fling it at the idiot. "Wake up, you fool!"

Kenshin winced as the pot smashed on impact with his head. Now the blood running down his face _was_ his own. "Shinta," he repeated stupidly. There was someone else here. Someone...someone was fighting. Too late. Too late to save his sisters. "You're too late," he said dully. "Why didn't you come in time?"

Yet it was not this man's fault. It was Kenshin's. "Why didn't I come in time?" he whispered.

"You know what?" Hiko snarled, "Forget it. You fail." He turned his full attention on the Tusken Raiders, whose numbers were now thankfully dwindling. A few more strokes and he would be done. He could not wait to get out of here and wash his hands of the whole wild goose chase. "Hah!" A swirling strike to get the closest ones off his back; kick the charging one in the face, use the momentum to slash at the one attempting a sneak attack. "Who's next?" Hiko thundered.

No one, apparently. There were only three left, who seemed shaken at the slaughter of their comrades. One turned tail and fled. The other two charged vengefully, and were cut down in short order. Oh, wait, the fleeing one was actually going for some sort of long-range weapon; take care of that with a Hiryuusen. Done.

Hiko sighed, surveyed the damage distastefully for a moment, then strode over to the boy. "What do you think you're _doing_?"

Kenshin stared at him. "Kasumi, Akane, Sakura...they're dead."

Hiko raked a hand through his hair and sighed again. "I know. Come on."

The two of them worked silently, digging graves for the girls and setting them carefully to rest. Kenshin had nothing to offer but grief; Hiko had nothing but sake, so that is what they gave. They stood a moment longer in respect to the dead. Then, Kenshin turned away, still gripping the shovel.

"Look," Hiko said awkwardly. "Obviously this has been...tough for you. I'm sorry...but I don't have a lot of time. The galactic government is getting more and more evil, and- What are you doing?" The red-haired young man had started digging another hole. "...Was there a fourth sister or something?"

Kenshin did not answer. Hiko sat down, sipped at his sake jug and watched until he finally realized that Kenshin intended to bury the Tuskens. "What are you _doing_?"

"Digging graves," Kenshin answered dully.

Hiko got back to his feet, cursing. "For crying out loud, we don't have time for this." When Kenshin showed no sign of paying attention, he took hold of the young man's arm and shook him. "Enough of this foolishness. Let's _go_, Shinta."

"Get off me," Kenshin snapped.

Hiko frowned, watching him continue to work. "Shinta. They were only raiders, bandits. Why are you doing this?"

"Shinta is gone," Kenshin mumbled. "They gave me another name. I'm Kenshin now." For a moment he paused, his hands tightening their grip on the shovel. "Shinta is...gone...he couldn't...I couldn't protect them..."

Hiko sighed. Then, silently, he picked up the other shovel again and got to work.

0-0-0-0-0

Katsura frowned. "I sense a great disturbance in the Force," he murmured.

Then he shook his head. "For goodness' sake, Kenshin, you're almost as bad as the female Jedi Masters when they're PMSing." He redoubled his efforts to get the long-range communicator on his ship working, sensing that getting in contact with some allies was now even more urgent than before.

0-0-0-0-0

"Frankly, he's not my optimum choice, but he's all I've got."

Farmer Oibore nodded, and both he and Hiko glanced out to the garage where Kenshin had disappeared to as soon as they returned.

"I lost him once before," Hiko went on. "It's been ten years, no one even remotely suitable has even showed up, and I'm not getting any younger. I need him. It'll be a long battle, and I won't last long enough to end the fight against what this galaxy is becoming." He hissed out a breath between his teeth. "Why does the most likely candidate for apprenticeship have to be such an idiot?"

"That young man is strong," Oibore said, nodding. "Difficult to control - impossible to control, even. Yet that is what makes him so valuable, eh?"

Hiko chuckled darkly. "You might have a point there, old man. _Might_. Doesn't make my job any easier."

In the garage, Tomoe sat quietly on the counter, watching Kenshin carefully work with a bit of hardware and several fine tools. He seemed completely immersed in his work, but she did not miss the unusual brightness of his eyes or the tense lines in his face that had not been there before. "Kenshin," she finally murmured.

"I don't want to talk," he said tightly, each word forced out between clenched teeth.

"...All right." Carefully, she allowed just enough cool reproach in her tone to warn him, but not enough to disrespect his grief.

Tomoe was very good at what she did. It only took Kenshin a few seconds to sigh and pause in his work. "Tomoe. I'm sorry," he said, unable to keep from growling. "I...I shouldn't take it out on you, it's just-"

She slipped off the counter and came up silently behind him. He stood very still, tuned to her presence, trying to blot out the dark thoughts by focusing on her energy.

"Kenshin," she said softly, laying a hand on his shoulder in comfort. "Tell me about them. I only met them once, and I could tell that they were good people. You knew them for years...tell me. Even now they smile down on you, and watch over you."

For a moment he seemed like he was about to break down and weep, but then his face changed. He put the tools down, and he let her hold him as he told her in his soft voice about the three young women who had cared for him and protected him. Tomoe could hear the grief in his voice, but there might also have been...something darker, something that belied the calm expression on his face. He missed his sisters, their deaths were a tragedy. There was also guilt that he had not reached them in time. He said nothing of this, but it was clear in his tone. This worried Tomoe, for it seemed like the guilt was what might be giving that dark edge to his grief.

"Kenshin," she said quietly at one point. "It was not your fault."

"I know that," he snapped. Then, apologetically, "I know. I'm sorry."

She stroked his hair, thinking, knowing that he was lying. "You loved them. It was not you who took them away from their home, or caused them pain. It was not a crime to continue in your duties rather than listen to nightmares."

For a moment his fingers curled, tightening his grip on her clothing. Then he relaxed. His voice was perfectly calm when he said, "I know, Tomoe. I don't blame myself. I just wish I could have done something to stop it. Wouldn't you feel the same?"

She realized that he was not hearing her, that he would not listen to reason. The guilt was deeply subconscious, and neither he nor anyone else could reason himself out of it. "I would."

Kenshin drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. "If I was...stronger...if I knew the ways of the Force better...maybe I could have done something."

Her heart began to beat a little faster in alarm. "You're only an apprentice. You did your best. You're already a prodigy, Kenshin. How could you have done anything more?"

He had been leaning against her, but now he pulled away and stared off into the distance as he spoke. "I've been training for all these years...but there must have been something. Something more I could have done."

"There was nothing you could have done," she said, her apprehension making her tone sharper than she meant it to be. "I know that you've been working hard. You did your best."

"My best wasn't good enough," he growled, still not looking at her. "My sisters are dead."

"Then maybe you weren't meant to save them," she said, trying to keep her voice calm. "Everyone passes from this world sooner or later, Kenshin. We do our best to protect people, but we're only human. If it was the time for your sisters, who are you to think you could intervene and change their fates? You tried as best you could."

"There's so much I still don't know about the Force," he mumbled. "There might have been a way to save them that I simply don't know about yet."

"Kenshin. It's too late for them. Learn, study, train, work for your future; but, please, let your sisters go." He was frightening her, because she thought she knew what he was really talking about.

"If I just knew more...if there just weren't so many - _rules_ preventing someone from seeking knowledge..."

0-0-0-0-0

Akane, Kasumi, and Sakura were buried on the homestead where they had found freedom. Kenshin, Hiko, Tomoe, and her father laid the girls to rest and paid their respects. Hiko, seeing that this was not the time to be recruiting Kenshin to a cause, soon returned home, though not before sternly ordering the young man to be ready for another visit in the next few days. Oibore could not stay longer, either, for despite the droids he had to help, there was still too much work to be done that only a human could oversee. By midday, only Kenshin was left to keep vigil, as Tomoe had gone to find something she might be able to coax him to eat.

It was around then that Tsubame finally came trundling anxiously out to its maker. "M-Master Shin- Master Kenshin!"

"Hello, Tsubame," he said tiredly.

"Master Kenshin...your ship is upset," it said timidly.

Kenshin frowned in confusion. "What?"

"Your ship," it tried to explain. "Someone keeps contacting it, but it can't reach you and it's really worried because the message sounds important."

"You can talk to my ship?" he said in surprise.

"Yes, sir. Um, the message is from that man - Master Katsura."

"Master Katsura?"

A few minutes later, Kenshin was in the cockpit, listening intently to the holo-message from Katsura.

_"Hello, Kenshin. I cannot reach Coruscant, and I need you to relay this message to the Jedi Council, since for some reason you happen to conveniently be on Tattooine instead of doing your job on Naboo. Anyway, a man named Kiyosato Akira is plotting treachery with a bunch of aliens on some hole-in-the-universe called Geonosis. I'll rendezvous with you as soon as I- Never mind, scratch that, I have just been captured. Hope to see you soon."_

"Master Katsura!" Kenshin yelped. He leaped up and rushed for the exit ramp, calling over his shoulder as he did so, "Tsubame, get the ship ready for takeoff! Tomoe and I have to leave right away!"

"M...Me?" the protocol droid gasped. "Get the ship ready for...?"

0-0-0-0-0

Katsura eyed his captor from where he was strung up in some sort of force field. "Hello."

"Hi," Akira said warily.

"...This is a bit undignified. Is there any way I could be transferred to more comfortable accommodations?"

Akira shrugged. "Sure. You're just bait anyway, to get Himura here so I can strangle him."

"Oh. That makes me feel very special." Once Katsura had been moved to a comfortable prison cell, he asked, "So tell me, is there any particular reason you are interested in strangling my apprentice, rather than trying to turn me to the Dark Side, get all the other Jedi killed, and overthrow the entire galactic order?"

"That scumbag stole my girlfriend," Akira snarled, clenching his fists in remembrance.

"...Sounds reasonable."

0-0-0-0-0

Prince Yukishiro of Naboo fidgeted impatiently as he listened to the schpiels of other representatives. Evil Separatists joined with evil Trade Federation oh noes what do we do world is ending blah blah blah. Someone was trying to hurt his sister, and he wanted something done about it NOW. "I'm going out there," he finally told his advisors.

"Wait, my prince," they clamored in alarm, "we need to-"

Yukishiro had already made up his mind. He pushed some buttons so that their unit came floating out onto the floor of the Senate. "I have a proposal," he said imperiously.

To his satisfaction, most of the other representatives agreed with him. Supreme Chancellor Shishio should immediately be given the "emergency" powers of a dictator in order to "help restore peace to the galaxy." And to find Tomoe's would-be assassin and kill him or her painfully, of course.

"I accept these responsibilities very, very reluctantly," Shishio announced with a level of gravity bordering on mockery, "and will most definitely lay them down as soon as this crisis is over." He could not resist a smirk then. "That is my promise. Really."

0-0-0-0-0

"Um...how did we end up in this unpleasant situation, again?"

"Well," Tomoe mused, "you and I went racing to Geonosis to save Master Katsura, we utterly failed and were captured instead, and now we are about to be publicly executed for the entertainment of an audience of bloodthirsty aliens."

Kenshin sighed. "This is all my fault, isn't it."

"Not everything is, you know," she said kindly.

The two of them were handcuffed as they stood in a chariot and waited to be brought to out face their doom. Gazing into each other's eyes, Kenshin opened his mouth to speak again, but Tomoe stopped him gently. "Dear one...please don't spoil this moment with cheesy dialogue."

"...Oh. Okay. Then can I just, um...kiss you instead?"

"You may." They did so as the chariot finally trundled out into the arena, where Katsura was already chained and waiting.

"Hello, Kenshin," he said easily as they approached. "I would be happy to see you, but it looks like you will be rather useless in getting me out of this situation."

"Sorry, Master. Tomoe said it wasn't my fault this time," Kenshin added hopefully.

"Really? That's good, Kenshin, you're improving."

As it turned out, the three prisoners were not as helpless as their captors might have liked. Two of them were Jedi Knights, after all, and were able to extricate themselves from their bonds. By that time, Tomoe had glared the chains off her wrists and was now perched atop the pole she had been tied to, waiting with chain in hands to lash out at anything that might have mistakenly thought she would make an easy meal.

"Master!" Kenshin shouted as he struggled to stay seated on the howling monster that had tried to eat him, "What will we do once we've defeated these creatures? We won't be allowed to leave the arena!"

"One bridge at a time, my young padawan," Katsura called back, preoccupied with fending off his own wild beast.

Up on her pole, Tomoe was saying coaxingly to the feline thing trying to get at her, "Now, sweetheart, just calm down and listen to me for a second. Tender girlflesh is all well and good, but wouldn't you much rather want to take a bite out of the jailers who have so mistreated you?"

As the feline thing paused thoughtfully, Katsura finally killed his assailant and Kenshin had managed to convince his mount that it would get both a square meal and sugar cubes _after_ it had helped its new friends escape. "All right," Kenshin said, huddled with his companions in a defensive circle, "Raging execution monsters dealt with. Now, about escaping the arena?"

After a baffled pause, Katsura finally suggested, "We could always just have someone rescue us."

Right on cue, a small army of Jedi Knights came leaping out of nowhere, running around slicing droids apart with lusty yells.

"Good call, Master," Kenshin said admiringly. "Now what happens when our vastly outnumbered Jedi army gets defeated?"

"Hm," Katsura murmured. "There's always the clone army."

"This is a bit too much of a cop-out, don't you think?" Tomoe commented when said clone army dropped down conveniently out of the sky. "Especially considering that there's no Mace Windu equivalent and the Yoda one has yet to show up."

"Wait," Kenshin said urgently, "we're going too fast. What about the bounty hunter?"

Fujita had been cheerfully fighting Kiyosato Akira (who was angry at him for letting Tomoe get chained up in an execution ring and then preventing Akira from rescuing her), until he was shot by his young clone while distracted by combat. "Hajime," he murmured as he lay dying, "Why?"

"Three words, 'Father,'" Hajime said flatly. "Aku, soku, zan."

"...Figures," Fujita sighed. "I suppose I should have known better than to expect that you would stand quietly by as I betrayed the Republic and tried to murder an innocent young woman." Fujita smiled. "My mistake. Goodbye, Hajime."

Hajime watched the bounty hunter take his last breath, then turned and glared at the staring Katsura, Kenshin, and Tomoe. "Kiyosato's escaping. Go catch him, morons."

Kenshin and Katsura, racing ahead of everyone else, caught up with Akira as the young man was trying to make his escape in a starship. "Stop right there, Kiyosato!" Kenshin shouted, lightsaber at the ready. "We're not going to let you get away with this!"

"Why not?" Akira yelled back. "You still need me for the opening of _Revenge of the Sith_, you know!"

Kenshin blinked. "Um...so?"

"Looks like I'd better handle this," Katsura said, stepping past him with his own lightsaber casually gripped in one hand. "Kiyosato, plot necessities aside, Kenshin and I have you outnumbered. You would do best to surrender quietly."

"I'm afraid that assessment is not quite accurate, Katsura-san. Forgive me, but now that Himura-san has grown up, you are now more a danger than a useful pawn."

Everyone turned in surprise at the sound of the new voice. A slight figure in a black cloak moved gracefully into view, the blade of a lightsaber glowing attractively against the dark surroundings.

"You!" Kenshin gasped. "You're a Sith Lord!"

"You're right, Himura-san," Soujirou agreed cheerfully. He glanced over his shoulder at Akira. "I'll take care of this, Kiyosato-san. You run along now."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks!" Akira scampered onto the ship and blasted off to safety.

Kenshin was upset. "He got away!"

"Unfortunately, we have more pressing problems to deal with," Katsura said guardedly. "This man is not an opponent to take lightly."

Kenshin found this to be true when his first attack resulted in him getting flung halfway across the hangar, where he hit a pipe and slumped to the ground in a daze. "...Ow...so much hurt..." It took him much, much longer than he wanted to drag himself back to his feet and limp his way over to where Katsura and Soujirou were whirling in a blaze of clashing lightsabers. "H...Hang on, Master. I'm coming."

He arrived a bit too late, since just before he reached the dueling couple, Soujirou brought his lightsaber down on Katsura, was blocked, and used the opportunity for an attack with the Force, which he had been planning all along. Katsura was flung backwards, and Soujirou followed him. Katsura managed to deflect the worst of the attack, but lost his lightsaber in the process. He hit the ground rolling; Soujirou pursued relentlessly, inflicting some light injuries in his attempts to cause a fatal one.

Kenshin came descending like a whirlwind of fury on Soujirou's back. The dark lord was forced to turn away and defend, allowing Katsura just enough time to get unsteadily to his feet. Kenshin, skilled but young, therefore not in complete control of his emotions, had his neglected guard taken advantage of, which allowed Soujirou time to flash back and kick Katsura halfway across the room before whirling back again to intercept Kenshin's retaliation.

"Master Katsura!"

"I'll give you some advice," Soujirou said conversationally as he lopped off the distracted young Jedi's arm and sent him flying after his master. "First of all, no matter how angry you are, no matter how outraged at the thought of a friend getting hurt, it will only work against you. Your focus needs to be on your defense and your plan of attack, not your emotions. It's your own emotions that are the real enemy. Secondly - don't be distracted. Didn't they teach you that in Jedi Martial Arts 101?"

Kenshin was not really in a state to answer. Groaning as he slumped against Katsura, he touched the fried stump that was all that was left of his arm and tried to remember how to string thoughts together coherently.

Soujirou raised his lightsaber, those clear innocent eyes darkening a little. "I hate to do this while your apprentice is watching, but it is time, Katsura-san."

"I don't think so," Katsura muttered, calling silently for his lightsaber.

It flew across the room toward his waiting hand, but was chopped to pieces in mid-flight by Soujirou's blade.

"...Well, it was worth a try." Katsura tiredly dropped his head back onto his arm, wondering if he could push Kenshin off of him and struggle back to his feet fast enough to be able to defend himself, bare-handed, from Seta Soujirou. Ha ha. LOL.

The Sith Lord took one step toward the fallen Jedi, then another. His lightsaber rose gracefully in preparation for the killing strike. Katsura tried shoving Kenshin off anyway, knowing it was in vain. Kenshin groaned and lost his concentration _right_ when he had managed to get the first two thoughts strung together (the first one was "Ow," the second one was, out of kindness to the author's delicate sensibilities, censored). It seemed like time was up for Katsura Kogorou, until a deep voice suddenly rolled through the hangar, just in the nick of time, of course.

"After more than ten freaking years, I _finally_ achieve my life's ambition, and still I find myself saving your sorry skin. Well done, Shinta. Kenshin. Whatever the heck you're calling yourself now."

Katsura and Soujirou glanced over in surprise at the bulky figure that was heroically silhouetted in the entrance. "Hiko Seijuurou-san?" they said at the same time.

Hiko lifted his sake jug and took a deep, satisfying draught before bothering to answer. "Duh."

"Your help is appreciated," Katsura said, his tone perfectly composed and polite, though his eyes were practically dripping with relief.

"Hm." Soujirou adjusted his stance, studying Hiko warily. "Looks like this'll take a little longer than I expected." In the next fraction of a second he was all the way across the room, unleashing a powerful attack on Hiko - who countered it with Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki.

Soujirou went flying.

Katsura watched in awe as the Sith Lord crashed to the ground, while Kenshin succeeded in stringing a couple more thoughts together ("Whoa" and "Hiko sake here what?").

"...Hiko-san," Soujirou murmured, as his blood began slowly pooling around him, "forgive me...for under- estimating..." He delicately drew in a pained, shallow breath, as Hiko came over to crouch down next to him. "Two steps...short." Soujirou smiled through bloodied lips. "Though even...full strength...no match for- you." His eyes closed, and he did not breathe again.

"That should have been obvious from the start, you little fool," Hiko muttered. In the second before he bowed his head, an oddly sad expression could be seen on his face, but by the time his moment of respect was over and he rose again to march over to Kenshin and Katsura, he was back to business. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Being rescued, apparently," Katsura said, finally at leisure to help both the half-conscious Kenshin and himself to their feet. "I thank you, Hiko-san."

"How's the kid?" Hiko asked brusquely.

Katsura eyed his apprentice. "Kenshin? I know you're...kind of missing an arm now...but, ah, how are you holding up?"

"Hiko sake here what?" Kenshin mumbled into Katsura's shoulder.

Hiko rolled his eyes. "Idiot. After losing out on a bet that _should_ have been a no-brainer, it took me ten more years to get my hands on a hyperdrive that would repair the ship I used to fly here to Geonosis and obtain my long-sought prize."

Katsura looked at him curiously.

Hiko held up the jug that always hung from his belt. "Geonosis. Home of the best sake in the galaxy. Mission accomplished."

"I congratulate you, Hiko-san," Katsura said politely. "Now, if you will excuse me, I've got to get medical attention for my apprentice and deliver the news that the Separatist leader has escaped to try to wreak more havoc in Episode III. You are welcome to join us."

"No thanks." Hiko roughly ruffled up Kenshin's hair and then turned to stride out of the hangar. "See you later, kid."

Katsura, a little spooked by the almost threatening tone, moved to follow. "Stay with me, Kenshin. Just concentrate on one step at a time...that's it, keep going..."

0-0-0-0-0

A few weeks later, as the clone army was spreading throughout the galaxy to the accompaniment of ominous foreboding background music, a certain couple were off getting married in secret on Naboo.

"Tomoe," Kenshin said softly. He started to reach for her hand, realized that he was using his right arm, and quickly amended the gesture with his left.

Tomoe let go of his left hand and firmly grasped the ugly metal prosthetic that had replaced Kenshin's lost right arm. "Yes?" she replied, looking so beautiful in her wedding gown that he wanted to cry, or to kiss her.

He decided on the latter. "I love you," he whispered afterwards.

Tomoe smiled.

The priest cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Um, 'scuse me folks, but do you think we could get through the actual ceremony first?"

"Oh." Kenshin turned back to him sheepishly, Tomoe's hand still grasped in his. He really hoped he was not hurting her - he couldn't feel anything through these stupid, clunky metal fingers. "Sorry."

"Please continue," Tomoe said politely.

Their eyes crept back toward each other as they spoke their vows, as if they were physically unable to stop looking at each other. At last the priest finished and moved sedately off to give them some privacy.

Tsubame, who had been given back to Kenshin by Tomoe's father and was the only other witness to this ritual, made a happy whirring noise. "I am so happy for both of you!"

"Thank you, Tsubame-chan," they said together, then glanced at each other with amused grins. "Now be a dear," Tomoe added, "and make sure we are not disturbed until tomorrow morning. _Late_ tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Ma'am," Tsubame said obediently.

They watched it moving away with its awkwardly charming gait, then turned back to each other. "Late tomorrow morning?" Kenshin repeated. "I like the sound of that."

"Come." Their hands still entwined, she began moving toward the bedroom, pulling him after her. "There are certain activities we ought not to be engaged in while we're still in sight on the balcony."

"Yes." His thoughts were starting to get a little incoherent again, but for much more pleasant reasons than having just lost an arm. "Yes!"

0-0-0

_Our love was more fragile than we knew. For one precious, priceless year it blossomed - then the poison began to creep in._

_To be continued..._

Author's Note: **See the author's notes of the previous chapter for my apology on venting my frustration with the Star Wars prequels too heavily in this fic.**


	11. Nightmares

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode XI - Nightmares** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

_The dreams were too similar, too disturbing. This one's sisters had been the ones to die the first time. When it began happening again..._

0-0-0

_War! Kiyosato Akira, former fiancée of Senator Tomoe of Naboo, has been duped into leading the Separatist movement in attacks against the Republic. Chancellor Shishio has been kidnapped, and instead of bidding him good riddance like an informed person would, Kenshin has flown off to rescue him in the battlespace surrounding Coruscant, aided by Jedi Master Katsura Kogorou and an army of supporting fighter pilots. Will their mission be successful? _Should_ it be? Find out - right now, on another exciting episode of: _RuroKen Star Wars_!_

0-0-0

"Is she finished yet?" Kenshin asked distractedly as he made his way through a violent flock of laser fire. "It's hard to keep focus with that cheesy narration."

_"Clear your mind, Kenshin,"_ Katsura intoned half-playfully through the commlinks. _"A Jedi fully comfortable with the Force should be able to rise above such distractions."_

"Yes, Master."

_"Of course, cheesy narration is not the only distraction troubling you."_

"...Yes, Master."

_"No need to sound sulky. We both know who is on your mind at the moment, and it's not Chancellor Shishio."_

"I should hope not!" Kenshin yelped, as the mental image of a lingerie-clad, sexily posing Tomoe was suddenly replaced by the much more disturbing image of a lingerie-clad, sexily posing Shishio. "Really, Master, I'm focused on this mission. We _will_ rescue the Chancellor!"

_"Watch your flank."_

Kenshin blinked in confusion, realizing too slowly that he was being attacked. The fighter rocked violently; his face burned as he straightened out, shot down the enemy, and did what he could to fix the damage, because he was the ace pilot here. He should have seen that coming. _'No more Tomoe,'_ he ordered himself firmly. _'Not until you're back safely on the ground.'_

The control ship loomed up ahead, and Kenshin did not notice his eyes slowly changing color as he and his master advanced on their prey. His focus narrowed; he found, to his vague surprise, that he could actually sense Shishio's presence on the observation platform, astonishingly calm, even bored, despite being a captive.

_'He's brave,'_ Kenshin thought admiringly. _'No fear for his own safety, not even worry about what this development could mean for the Republic.'_ Kenshin was almost awed at what utter confidence the man must have in those who fought for him. _'I won't let you down, Chancellor,'_ Kenshin thought determinedly.

His attention shifted, spreading alertly back to the battleground around him. Bright flickers of life flared around him, each human soul contrasted with the dull shine of droids and the pulsing of gunfire. Kenshin, if he tried, could sense each slow-forming plan, each split-second decision, the powerful, often conflicting emotions roiling beneath the battle-focus of his comrades.

He could also sense each extinguishment of light as the fighters covering his back were picked off, one by one. "Master-" he started to say, alarmed.

_"No, Kenshin."_ The voice was low and heavy, but firm. _"They're doing their job. Concentrate on yours."_

"...Yes, Master." He submitted, but not quietly. This felt wrong - this was not what Kenshin wanted, not why he had left Tattooine years ago to dedicate his services to the Republic. He wanted to _protect_ people, not watch them die for his sake.

_"No distractions,"_ Katsura told him sharply, sensing the unease of his apprentice's mind.

"Sorry, Master," Kenshin said tightly. Katsura had a point, they had to stay focused in this hostile environment, since one tiny lapse could end in death. That didn't mean they had to agree.

It was a close shave getting into their target ship - their fighters slid in just as the hangar gate was rumbling shut. Then they were immediately forced to jump out and fight for their heads against the random armed droids waiting for them, downing the last one even as they were backing into an elevator.

"All right?" Katsura inquired as he punched the controls.

"Hai." Kenshin squinted up at the ceiling. "Master, are you somehow getting the weird feeling that we're walking into a trap?"

"Why do you call it 'weird'? Hasn't this sort of thing become run-of-the-mill by now?"

Kenshin ruefully returned his master's grin. "Point taken. So, what do we do about this trap?"

"Spring it - with our eyes open."

"Sounds...fun," Kenshin said uncertainly.

They arrived at the observation deck with, surprisingly, no incident. "Don't you think this was a little too easy?" Kenshin asked worriedly.

"No, just more Fight Scene Writing Avoidance Syndrome," Katsura assured him. "Let's go - the Chancellor is waiting."

So was Kiyosato Akira. Kenshin jumped back, startled, when he opened the door to the observation platform and abruptly found himself face-to-face with his rival. "You!" Akira, having been left for dead years ago, had apparently survived after all, and had made his way back to the capital after recovering from amnesia and escaping a long captivity. Kenshin had only recently found out from his wife that the man she had once been engaged to was the same one standing before him now. "Um...this is awkward."

"I should have known you'd keep sticking your nose in business it doesn't belong," Akira complained. "Weren't you even a _little_ bit deterred by losing your arm?"

Kenshin's lips tightened, but his voice remained frostily polite as he replied, "I've dedicated my life to training in the Jedi arts in order to protect people. I will not stop fighting for others until the last breath leaves my body."

"_You_, fighting for the people!" Akira exclaimed in outrage. "An arrogant Jedi, barricaded smugly behind your hypocritical philosophy, strong-arming the _people_ under the tyranny of this so-called Republic! You sure have gall, you little freak!"

"...Um, was that supposed to be goading?"

"YES! FIGHT ME!"

Kenshin powered on his lightsaber and raised it. "You know that I have already married her," he said quietly. "I love her. She has committed herself to me. And whatever affection she might still feel for you...it doesn't change the fact that she hates what you're doing."

With a wordless cry, Akira fell on him. He didn't have a chance, really, seeing as he was going up against the greatest Jedi and third-greatest swordsman in the galaxy. Kenshin disarmed him on the third stroke and brought him to his knees with an almost offensive lack of effort.

"Curse you!" Akira cried in frustration. "It's not fair!"

"Um...sorry."

The chancellor's voice called out from the observation deck. "Kenshin!"

Kenshin craned around to peer through the doorway. "Yes?"

"The battle droids are gone, but your Master Katsura somehow had the misfortune of getting pinned under a broken chunk of metal. Do you mind giving me a hand here?"

"Of course-!" Kenshin started in alarm, but then glanced uneasily back at his captive.

"Come on, Kenshin," Shishio's voice continued. "Look, you two had the entire battle in the hallway - at least come out here where your poses can have a better dramatic background."

Kenshin and Akira looked at each other, shrugged, then moved out to the observation platform, where Kenshin forced him to his knees again after Akira tried and failed to take the opportunity to cheat.

"Curse you!"

"...Sorry."

"Now," Shishio said softly, "kill him."

The two young men stared at him, shocked. "_What_?"

"You heard me."

"But - But I should take him to stand trial! He's...he's defeated! I can't just chop off his head in cold blood!"

"Kenshin. He's the Separatist leader. He threatens peace in the entire galaxy. People have _died_ because of him. He deserves to face justice - _now_."

Kenshin stared into Akira's furious, desperate eyes for a very long moment. "No," he finally said, quietly. He lowered his weapon.

"MISTAKE!" Akira screamed triumphantly, lunging up to gouge at Kenshin's face.

Kenshin never really remembered the next few moments. Just...one second he was under attack; the next, the severed head of Kiyosato Akira was rolling at his feet, and a trickle of blood was sliding down his face. "What...?"

Shishio smiled. "Well done, Kenshin. Perhaps we'll be able to make something of you after all."

0-0-0-0-0

"Master, are you sure you're all right?"

Katsura smiled at his anxious young apprentice. "Nothing the med droids can't fix, Kenshin." He sighed. "Still...I was only up against droids...I don't understand how I managed to injure myself against toys."

"I don't understand it, either," Kenshin agreed with a frown. "And you say you don't even remember how you got hurt?"

Katsura shook his head. "One minute I was attacking some droids near the chancellor, the next, I was waking up in your arms."

"Master, your phrasing..."

Katsura grinned. "Thank you for saving me, by the way. Instead of cutting your losses."

"I can't believe the chancellor wanted to leave you there," Kenshin grumbled.

"It does make sense, you know. In the heart of enemy territory, with only one warrior to rely on, I don't blame the chancellor for wanting to avoid the inconvenience and danger of dragging along an unconscious body."

"Still..."

Katsura reached out to pat Kenshin's shoulder. "Why are you still here? The press are dying to meet their new star." He nodded at the window, from which they could faintly hear the sounds of a crowd, even through several layers. "Very noisily."

Kenshin looked away. "I'm no hero."

"I do not think anyone else is going to see it that way, what with how you spectacularly piloted a flaming fraction of a ship safely into port, with the kidnapped chancellor in tow."

Kenshin glared. "_I'm no hero_." He paused, then said thickly, "You didn't...you didn't see what - what I did to Kiyosato..."

Katsura sat quietly for a moment. "Kenshin."

"..."

"There's more than the press who want to see you."

Kenshin sucked in a breath.

"Go, Kenshin," Katsura said gently. "She's waiting."

"No- I can't, not after what I..."

0-0-0-0-0

It occurred to him to use the press for his own purposes, milking the questions and poses and handshakes for all he was worth. It was no use, of course. He knew she was there. He could _feel_ her eyes on him, long before he saw her. Through the Force, he sensed her quietly waiting presence, past the outskirts of the crowd. There was no escaping her.

Perhaps that was why his smiles grew more panicked, his mind more distracted, until finally when asked about any comments he had on the death of the traitor, Kiyosato Akira, he found himself yelling, "I killed him and I'm a horrible person!"

Silence. "Um," one of the journalists finally ventured, "I don't think you are."

"I don't have anything else to say, bye," Kenshin said shortly, fighting his way out of the crowd. They surged after him, excitedly yelling more questions, and were astonished when Kenshin's black-robed form moved into a patch of deep shadow - and never came out.

0-0-0-0-0

"Well. I certainly have a lot of visitors today," Katsura commented as a few members of the Jedi Council came into his room.

"Katsura-san. We hope your injuries are not serious."

"Oh, not at all, I'm really-"

"Good. We need to talk."

"Thank you for the well wishes," Katsura said dryly.

"Kiyosato was not the only enemy."

"Oh? Have we found the hidden Sith lords, then?"

"...No. But in order to continue the plot, we have interviewed some candidates for filler enemies and have hired Usui. He's on Utapau now, and we want you to go hunt him down."

"Splendid. Give me some time to recover, and I shall be off to do some plot continuing."

"May the Force be with you. And by the way, we still hate your apprentice and think there's something ominously fishy about him."

"It's a free galaxy. You are entitled to your opinion."

"Thank you." They left.

0-0-0-0-0

"Kenshin!"

"Gah! Stay back!"

"Whoa! Put that down, buddy, it's just me."

Kenshin, breathing hard, blinked as he recognized that he had only been caught by his friend I'izuka. Sighing, he returned his lightsaber to its sheath and smiled tiredly at the other man. This was good. Having company was good. "I'izuka. Oof!"

Grinning, I'izuka thumped him on the back once more for good measure, then laughed and practically herded Kenshin along as they began walking down the large, elegant corridor. "So, one adventure after another, ain't it?"

"They never end," Kenshin grumbled.

"Good work, man. I heard the ship was totaled, but our dear chancellor's safe and sound, eh? And what's-his-name, the Separatist guy, gone for good! You're really something else, Kenshin!"

"I don't really want to talk about it," Kenshin mumbled.

"Eh? Why not?"

Kenshin absently pushed I'izuka's hand off his shoulder. "It's just...not something I'm proud of, okay? I didn't mean to kill Kiyosato, it was an accident."

I'izuka grinned slyly. "Even though the guy had his eyes on your wife?"

"They _were_ engaged at one point," Kenshin mumbled uncomfortably. He felt really bad about that. Akira's survival had been pretty inconvenient.

"Oooh...speakin' of your wife..."

Kenshin looked up in alarm, and halted in his tracks. "T-Tomoe!"

The Nubian senator, elegant as always in rich robes and an intricate hairstyle, gave I'izuka a look that sent him scampering off with what sounded like a whimper. Then she approached her husband, who looked away and had to draw on all his willpower to keep his feet planted where they were.

She reached him. For a minute she did not speak, merely reached out to straighten his collar and smooth out a few wrinkles. Finally she said quietly, "You did not come straight home."

He swallowed nervously. "I...that is..."

"You had perfectly legitimate reasons for doing so, of course." Her eyes. Her eyes were burning him. "What concerns me is that the _real_ reason was not legitimate."

"Tomoe, I _was_ avoiding you," he burst out, "even though really, I meant to face you eventually and tell you the truth. I - I can understand if you're angry, and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to-" He cut off abruptly when she laid both her palms flat on his chest and rested her head against his shoulder.

"Akira-san was a good man," she said softly. Kenshin swallowed, but said nothing. "He was kind, and brave. He was misguided, he took the wrong path, but...I pray that his soul rests in peace. I am glad, dear one, that you are safe." She looked up at him. Then she frowned and reached to touch the crust of dried blood on the side of his head, where he had been cut near the temple. "My love..."

"It's nothing," he said quickly. "It doesn't even hurt. I...I'm all right."

She smiled a little. "For once, I believe you - as far as physical injuries go, that is." Then she closed her eyes and kissed him, and for a few minutes they were lost in a world that belonged to just the two of them.

When Kenshin finally opened his eyes, content, he found one of his hands resting on her stomach, which reminded him. "Oh!" he cried happily. "Tomoe, are you pregnant?"

Her face colored. "...No," she mumbled.

"Oh." He hugged her again to hide his disappointed expression.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I know how much you wanted to have children."

"It's okay!" he laughed, still hugging her so that she couldn't see his face. "I love you so much, Tomoe!"

"I love you, too," she whispered.

0-0-0-0-0

Usui arrived on Planet Utapau, or at least his ship did. When the disembarking ramp was lowered, no one came down it.

"Maybe we won't have to host the new filler villain after all," an Utapauan said hopefully.

Just then, a blindfolded man with creepy taste in fashion came launching down from the ceiling, impaling the alien who had just spoken. "Is my presence a _problem_ here?" he asked challengingly.

"No, sir! Not at all!" the rest of the welcoming committee cried frantically.

"Geez, you didn't have to _kill_ him for something as trifling as that," someone grumbled under their breath. Unfortunately for that someone, Usui's sense of hearing was exquisite.

"New rules," Usui announced as he wiped the second alien's blood from his blade. "I'm in charge here. No one complains. No one watches TV or looks at artwork, so as not to hurt my feelings. No one mentions colors, for the same reason. No one-"

_"Usui?"_ The commlink at Usui's belt was crackling with the emperor's voice.

Usui growled under his breath and pulled the thing out so he could speak into it better. "What?"

_"I presume that you have arrived on Planet Utapau."_

"Yes. I have. Now if you'll excuse me, I am very busy terrifying the natives."

_"Shut up, Usui. You have new orders - move the Separatist leaders to Mustafar."_

"What? Are you _kidding_?" Usui protested in a gravelly whine. "I just _got_ here! Now you want me to pack up and leave again, and haul everyone to some godforsaken volcanic Nowheresville-"

_"Do as I say, Usui. We can just as easily replace you with Chou, or Kamatari, or even, heaven forbid, that new Iwanbou I just ordered-"_

"Fine!"

0-0-0-0-0

_"Kenshin...Kenshin..._Kenshin!"

Kenshin started awake so quickly that if not for Tomoe's miraculous powers of dignified behavior, they would have bonked heads. "What? What?"

Her solemn eyes met his panicked ones. "You were having another fanservicey nightmare, dear."

"...Oh." Kenshin put his head in his hands, then instantly jerked upright again. "Ow! Stupid fake arm!" He rubbed his forehead, glaring at the prosthetic metal arm, and was mollified when Tomoe leaned over to kiss the injury.

"Would you like me to make you some tea?"

"Mm...no, that's okay..." He was rubbing at his forehead again, gazing absently into the distance.

She frowned and laid her hands over his to still the movement. "My love, what's wrong?"

"Oh - nothing." He tried to smile reassuringly. She wondered how he could still look so cute when the smile was so obviously fake. "I'm all right now, really." He leaned in to kiss her.

Never one to fall for his attempts at distractions, she leaned away and fixed her Look on him until he started squirming guiltily. "Are you?"

"No," he confessed. He flopped back down and rolled so that his head was in her lap. She stroked his hair, waiting. "I... Tomoe, are you _sure_ you're not pregnant?"

She frowned. She could tell that, oddly enough, he was not changing the subject. "I'm quite sure."

"Hm."

"My love," she said softly, "if there was a child, you would be able to sense its life-force, wouldn't you?"

He sighed heavily. "You're right. Never mind, then."

Her fingers stilled for just a moment, but then continued running soothingly through his hair. He did not notice the pause. "What was your dream?"

"Well," he said hesitantly, "I was dreaming about you...about you dying." He paused. "You were giving birth, I could hear the baby crying - but I could feel you slipping away." He swallowed. "I don't want to lose you, Tomoe."

"What makes you think you will?" she said calmly. "It was only a dream."

He closed his eyes, reaching down a hand to curl around her leg. To reassure himself of her presence, she guessed. "I've dreamed things like this before." His eyes opened again, gazing up at her seriously. "About my sisters."

"..." This time he noticed that her fingers had paused. "I see."

He abruptly sat up. "I don't want you to die, Tomoe."

"I'm not going to die in childbirth," she said flatly. "At least, not anytime soon."

He dropped his head, scrubbing at his scalp in frustration. "What does it mean, then? That I would dream such a thing?"

"Even Jedi can have normal dreams, you know."

"Normal dreams," he said flatly, "don't usually recur."

There was a silence.

"So you've dreamed this before," she finally said.

"Almost every night," he whispered. "For over a week now." He drew in a deep breath and tried, not entirely successfully, to let it out slowly. "I keep seeing you dying, over and over again, your last words drowned out by the baby's crying..." He said nothing about how in some of the dreams, Tomoe did not die in childbirth, but rather from injuries inflicted by his own bloody hands.

Tomoe realized that she was becoming upset, mostly from the sight of her husband's distress. Thoughtfully, she leaned over to take something out of the drawer in her bedside table, which she slipped into Kenshin's hair.

He frowned, reaching up to touch it. "This...it can't be that awful hair clip I gave you?"

She smiled, drawing it out of his astonished fingers and this time using it to pin up her own hair.

"Why do you still have that?"

"Because I like it," she said simply.

He sat up. Curiously, she touched his face and found his cheeks slightly warmer than usual. He was blushing. "I gave that to you when I was a _kid_..."

"Yes."

"No self-respecting woman would wear a piece of workroom junk in her hair!"

"A piece of workroom junk? This is the gift you presented me with all those years ago?"

He looked away, embarrassed. "That's not what I meant." She laid her hand over his, and he glanced back at her to smile a sweet, shy little smile. "I put all my love into that gift, embarrassing as it is."

"Yes." She smiled back.

0-0-0-0-0

"Neesan!" Yukishiro burst awake with a gasp, staring into the darkness of his room for a minute before realizing how tightly clenched his fingers were in the sheets. With some difficulty, he finally managed to uncurl his hands. Then he stared at them, not seeing them. What he saw instead were the after-images from his nightmares - images of his sister dying. The method varied...strangled by bloody hands, impaled, wasting away from disease...but the end was always the same.

Yukishiro buried his face in his hands, his fingers so tense that he nearly drew blood from his own flesh. "Neesan, I'll never let that happen to you. I'll _never_ let anyone hurt you. I'll keep you safe, I promise..."

0-0-0-0-0

"Master Katsura, I'm worried about Tomoe."

Katsura glanced over at his apprentice. It was good to know that Kenshin was apparently preoccupied, seeing as how their current activity of trying to re-align some corrupt power converters in the temple's communications network was a delicate business. "Is that so. Kenshin, that's a B+x connection; they don't take kindly to the b+y's."

Kenshin yelped and adjusted his grip on the channeling tool just in time. "Sorry!"

"...You're supposed to be a mechanical genius, Kenshin. I shouldn't have had to point out something so obvious."

The young man gulped. "Um...I apologize. Very much. But Tomoe is kind of important, you know."

"Yes, she is," Katsura acknowledged, "which is why I'm not angry that you're not completely focused on what we're doing. However, do you think we could at least get the temp converters lined up before we discuss this?"

"Oh! Right, of course."

A short time later, Katsura had just finished packing the tools away as Kenshin came running up with a couple of drinks.

"It's green," he said a little breathlessly, handing the ice-cold can over to his master. "I hope you don't mind."

"Next to blue, green is my favorite," Katsura said reassuringly, breaking the freshness seal and taking a sip. "Now. Tomoe, then."

Kenshin plopped down next to him with a sigh, opened his own (red) drink, and took a long swallow before finally speaking. "I've been having dreams about her, where she dies. In childbirth." He could not bring himself to mention the other ways he had seen her die.

Katsura paused. "Oh."

Kenshin turned to him anxiously. "She's not taking me seriously, she thinks I'm being silly, but...Master Katsura, please!"

Katsura sighed heavily. "I take it this is similar to the nightmares you used to have about your sisters?"

Kenshin released a long breath, both relieved that someone understood him and worried that his master was taking this seriously. "Yes," he said in a low voice. "That's what frightens me."

"In childbirth, you say?" Katsura said with a frown. "Is she-?"

"No. She said she wasn't, and I know she's telling the truth. But what does it _mean_, then?"

"...Probably something bad. I need to think about this, Kenshin."

"I can't _stop_ thinking about it," the young man grumbled. He glanced up. "Um...aren't you supposed to say something to me about how obsessing over this will lead to the Dark Side, and even if she dies she'll just become one with the Force...? Or something?"

"Kenshin, obsessing over this will lead to the Dark Side, and even if Tomoe-san dies, she will just become one with the Force, so there is no need to fret." Katsura raised an eyebrow. "Feel better?"

"...No."

"So my effort is wasted."

"Yes."

Katsura put a hand on his apprentice's shoulder reassuringly. "Your wife is a strong woman, Kenshin. She may not _appear_ to be taking this seriously, but she is not a fool...and you must admit, she's a bit hard to read. I'm sure she has not flippantly dismissed your concerns."

Kenshin smiled then. "You're right. Now I _do_ feel better. A little."

"Good. By the way, the Senate is expected to vote more executive power to the chancellor."

Kenshin blinked. "Uh...great. What, um, exactly does this have to do with Tomoe?"

Katsura raised an eyebrow. "It's 'great' that the Senate is foolishly handing over power to a tyrant who will one day crush our galaxy under an oppressive, despotic rule?"

"Oh! No! I mean, yes- What? I just... Ah! I bet this is one of those Jedi riddles they used to ask us padawans, right? To see if we were channeling the Force properly or something?"

Katsura rolled his eyes. "You _really_ got miscast in this fic, didn't you."

"...Yes, people keep telling me that."

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin, upon being summoned to the chancellor's office, was surprised to find the unlikely person who was waiting for him along with Shishio.

"I'izuka? What are you doing here?"

I'izuka waved. "There's my partner! How ya doing, Kenshin?"

"Um, good." Kenshin looked questioningly at Shishio, who rose and came around to sit on his desk.

"Took you long enough, Kenshin. Now, we're old friends, right? You're willing to take on some assignments from me?"

"I suppose so," Kenshin said cautiously.

"And you're all for peace and justice and all that, right?"

"Isn't that what the Republic stands for?"

"Obviously. So if I were to tell you that I've discovered a ring of traitors, a deeply buried organization of people who are trying to overthrow the Senate, whose goal is to destroy liberty and order and goodness and kindness and bunnies and rainbows and sparkly things, you'd agree that these people need to be dealt with, right?"

"Y-Yes, of course."

"Good. Now, here's what I want you to do. My agents have uncovered the identity of one of these traitors. He's holed up somewhere with high security, so I'll need a highly skilled operative to get inside and bring him to justice. I'm sure you can handle that, can't you?"

"Well-"

"Wonderful," Shishio said briskly. "I'izuka's been assigned as your partner, he's got all the details and such that you'll need. You two can run along now and get to work." He made shooing motions. "I'll be looking forward to your report."

"Yes, sir," Kenshin said, looking confused.

"Heh heh," I'izuka laughed, herding him out, "this is gonna be fun, Kenshin!"

Once they were gone, Shishio smiled to himself, then activated the commlink on his desk. "All right, send him in."

A few minutes later, Yukishiro came slouching through the door, eyes darting around in appraisal of the room. "You summoned me, chancellor?"

"Ah, yes, my little Nubian princeling. Bad dreams again?"

Yukishiro glowered, which was answer enough.

"Have you been a good little boy and practiced those drills I gave you?"

"Hmph." Yukishiro raised a hand, furrowing his brow in concentration. A paperweight on Shishio's desk lurched. It began to tremble, then suddenly flew off the desk and crashed into the opposite wall. Yukishiro raised an eyebrow.

"I see your powers have been coming along nicely. Now then, I've got another assignment for you, this one a little more challenging..."

0-0-0

_This one was so blind. So many lies, so many people lost..._

_To be continued..._


	12. Unsavory Assignments

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode XII - Unsavory Assignments** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

**A/N: This chapter is SO FRIGGIN' BADLY WRITTEN, I'm so sorry guys... DX**

0-0-0

_It should have been more obvious. This one's uneasiness continued to grow, and so did his brother's power._

0-0-0

The job did not prove to be unduly difficult, since Kenshin had experienced far more impressive adrenaline highs during some of his adventures with Katsura. Most of it, with the accompaniment of I'izuka's instructions and annoying jokes through the commlink in his ear, was standard lock-disabling, computer persuading, a few instances of darting into shadows, and also having to silence some of the bodyguards. Kenshin tried to disable them without actually killing them, but in a couple of instances it was unavoidable, they would have manage to raise an alarm otherwise.

Soon he found himself face to face with the target, a squid-like creature drifting in a large water tank who seemed to be asleep. Kenshin drew in a breath, then put on a stern expression and rapped smartly on the glass. The creature's five eyes popped open at once.

"Drak-sylKRANi'vkmyen Dril," Kenshin said formally, you are under arrest for crimes against the Galactic Republic."

Drak-sylKRANi'vkmyen Dril made a gurgling sound.

_"Great job, Kenshin!"_ I'izuka cheered into his commlink. _"Thanks for opening the gate. I'm coming up the hallway now with some clones."_

"All right."

A few seconds later, I'izuka entered the room, gave Kenshin one of those annoyingly hearty pats on the back, then gestured enthusiastically at the clone troopers. "All righty, boys, haul 'im in! Oh, you can take off now, Kenshin, we've got it from here."

"You sure you don't need any help, or do you at least want me on standby until-? Oof!" Kenshin started coughing, the thunk on the back had been so hard this time. "Lighten up, I'izuka!" he exclaimed. "It's like you're _trying_ to hurt me."

"Nonsense, Kenshin! We're fine, go on!"

"All right, if you're sure..."

Once the redhead left, I'izuka smiled and gestured toward one of the troopers, the only one who actually was not a clone. "He's all yours, Yukishiro."

Yukishiro, muttering something under his breath about the clunky uniform, moved forward and studied the squid-like alien for a moment, which had begun sloshing around its tank in distress. Then he smiled, punched some buttons on the control panel, and watched as the tank drained. He kept watching as the squid creature flopped and thrashed with increasing desperation on the tank floor, then slowly began to shrivel and grow still until it was nothing but a dried-out chunk of organic material that no longer even resembled a living creature. "How was that?" he asked I'izuka casually.

The other man gave a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head in rueful admiration. "Yep, seems pretty dead to me."

"Hmph. If that's Shishio's idea of 'challenging,' then maybe it's time for me to look for a new tutor."

As Yukishiro strode out of the room, I'izuka watched him go. Then he chuckled softly. "Believe me, kid. You're just getting warmed up - both of you are."

0-0-0-0-0

The reports began trickling in with a kind of regularity. As more and more of the traitors were identified, Kenshin was given assignment after assignment; many of his nights were now spent breaking into one compound after another, rousing people from their beds to place them under arrest. One target resisted capture so violently that Kenshin, trying to subdue him, accidentally killed him. Kenshin was so horrified at this fatal mistake that he expected and even desired censure, but Shishio merely dismissed Kenshin's guilt and praised him for the zeal and dedication he put into his work. The chancellor's reaction gave Kenshin no peace, and he became too ashamed to share his feelings or the details of his assignments with Katsura or even Tomoe.

And through it all, the nightmares persisted. Kenshin was almost afraid to sleep now, it was so exhausting having to relive his wife's death so over and over again.

The newest target, a fat, green-skinned man, was sprawled obliviously snoring in a bed that also contained a female. She was also fat and rather homely, and Kenshin had the uneasy feeling that she was his wife, rather than a casual lover. He hesitated, but I'izuka's voice in his commlink was starting to get agitated, so Kenshin drew in a deep breath, took hold of the man's shoulder, and shook him awake. "Ziik Merolaetov, you are under arrest for crimes against the Republic."

Ziik and his wife stirred, opened their eyes and reacted in fearful, angry astonishment upon finding a stranger in their bedroom. The green-skinned woman began to scream when troopers entered; Ziik began storming about how they had no right, this was ridiculous, things had gone too far, etc. Kenshin's heart sank as he watched Ziik angrily proclaiming his innocence, but already I'izuka was shoving him out of the room. Just once, Kenshin wished that they would not put up such a fuss, since an unreasonable sense of guilt would set his heart churning, the sensation only growing worse with each incident.

As Kenshin exited the house and began the journey home, he found himself thinking, _'I wonder how much more of this I can take...'_

0-0-0-0-0

"Himura Kenshin, you can be on the Jedi Council as the Emperor's-I-mean-Chancellor's personal representative because Shishio twisted our arm(s) and/or tentacle(s) to elect you, but you are not allowed to be a Jedi Master. So there, hah!"

Kenshin's face fell. "Oh. Okay." He was standing, as usual, in the center of the Ring of Humiliation - er, that is, the floor of the Jedi Council's meeting room. "Um...is there a particular _reason_ you all are barring me from Master status, even though I'm perfectly qualified? Besides the fact that no one here except Master Katsura likes me very much?"

The head of the Council looked rather smug as he answered, "No."

"...Oh. Well, okay."

"Young Himura," another Jedi said severely, "doesn't this unfair and suspicious treatment raise any dark feelings within you? Resentment, perhaps? Fear, anger, hatred? A desire to fly into Battousai Mode and send our heads rolling, along with artistically-splattered showers of blood?"

Kenshin looked rather alarmed. "I mean - I'm rather disappointed, yes, but I'm not about to go on a murderous rampage or anything. Is that really the kind of thing you all expect of me?"

"Of course!" shrilled a foot-high creature with six eyestalks and a single purple wing. "You've had dealings with Hiko Seijuurou XIII! Doing such a thing would be as easy as breathing for you! You're crawling with Dark Side cooties! Calling you 'Aniken' is WAY too much of a coincidence! WE SHOULD HAVE YOU ARRESTED RIGHT NOW!"

"But I haven't done anything! And I do not so have Dark Side cooties!"

"Do so!"

"Do n-!" Kenshin forced himself to calm down. "Very well, you may believe what you want. Still...seriously," he pleaded, "do I _look_ evil?"

Apparently, some aliens were naturally immune to the Big Blue Puppy Eyes look. "That's just the thing," one of them sniffed. "It's always the quiet friendly ones who turn out to be serial killers in the end."

"What? When have I ever killed anyone? ...Er, in cold blood? ...For non-plot-related reasons?"

"Oh, give it up," someone else snorted. "We've got more interesting things to worry about right now, such as Katsura's hunt for Usui in the Outer Rim."

"Oh yeah...how's that going?" Kenshin asked half-heartedly.

"None of your business!"

"Wh...What do you mean it's none of my business? That's my master out there, doing the hard work while you all sit here and - and eat grapes!"

Everyone regarded him with outrage. A one-eyed humanoid quickly shoved a dish of purple fruit balls out of sight.

Kenshin gave up, bowing to the Council at large. "Forgive my outburst. If you will excuse me, I will take my leave now."

"Yeah, that's right. Get out of here, Aniken," someone mumbled in a hostile whisper.

Kenshin frowned, which sent a shiver through the assembled Jedi Masters, but he left without another word.

0-0-0-0-0

Thankfully, Kenshin had the night off. He helped Tomoe with dinner, which they ate together on the balcony. Then they settled down to watch a film together, a light romance which she enjoyed until she noticed that her husband was either not laughing at all or only laughing in a loud, startled manner whenever she did. Tomoe focused on him then, and noticed that even though he was facing the direction of the screen, his eyes were half-closed and were not following the movements of the characters.

Experimentally, she picked up the controller and switched away from the film to a news station. For several long seconds, Kenshin did not react. Then he seemed to notice the change, raising his head a little and frowning. Still he said nothing for a while, then finally ventured, "Tomoe? What's the name of this film again?"

"'Love in the Midst of Peril'," she invented.

"Oh. I expected it to be a bit more...romantic than this."

Tomoe sighed. The film they had been watching was actually called 'The Corellian Next Door.' "Kenshin, what's bothering you?"

"Mm? Oh, no, we can keep watching, I like this."

"Kenshin, I'm not talking about this film. And this is not the film, by the way. I switched that off a while ago."

"Oh." He sat up. "Really?"

Tomoe turned the screen off entirely and then took his face in both her hands, giving him a hard look. "Why are you hiding from me?"

"I'm not! Well, maybe I am." He squirmed, but she did not release him.

Finally she sighed, brushed his bangs out of his eyes and let her hands drop so that she could take his in her own. "Are you still having those nightmares?"

"Hm? Well, yes, but...I mean, it's other stuff, too."

She regarded him. Then, to his surprise, she smiled a little. "I was not going to tell you until it was ready, but...Kenshin, I'm planning something for you."

"You are?"

"Yes. A gift. It is a surprise, so I don't want to give you any details until I have laid it in your hands. However, I will say that you might find it helpful in these new assignments the chancellor has been giving you."

"Really?" he said guardedly, wondering if she guessed more than he had told her.

"It really bothers you sometimes, doesn't it," she said softly. "Your lightsaber."

"Ah - yes." This subject had come up before in their conversations. "It's just...so powerful, so easy to use now that I've been trained...there's some jobs I don't like taking it on. I'm so afraid of accidentally killing somebody ag- of accidentally killing someone."

"Since you can wield a lightsaber," she asked curiously, "do you think it would be easy to use different types of swords?"

He looked thoughtful. "Probably. If the blade is significantly different, I'd have to get used to some specialized techniques, but I'm sure the basics would be the same."

"Good," she said, sounding satisfied.

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious."

0-0-0-0-0

In his own apartment, Yukishiro flexed his fingers in anticipation, then closed his eyes and concentrated on his other senses. The objects in the room began to take shape in his mind, until he had a nearly complete mental picture of everything in his immediately environment. Then he took a slow, controlled breath, and began to reach out.

First the mirror, lifting it with his mind off its place on the wall and letting it hover in the air. Then the other mirror on the other side of the room. Tugging gently at the two reflective surfaces until they were orbiting each other in a graceful circuit around him, forming the illusion that his body was copied and recopied infinitely in their depths. Then, a little trickier, the bowl of fruit on the low table, lifting it up and then each individual piece of its contents floating up and forming a constantly moving, geometrical pattern.

With his concentration already taken up by these, Yukishiro was more careful than ever as he mentally reached for the recently built lightsaber in his belt. He could feel a drop of sweat roll down his temple. Using the Force to press the ignition button, a thrill of excitement suddenly went through him at the sound of the blade, and he could not help smiling. Keeping everything suspended and in their patterns no longer seemed difficult.

More confidently, he positioned his lightsaber to slice each piece of fruit in half, though his body did not so much as twitch. He also kept his eyes firmly shut, using the Force to envision how the reflections of the blade at its work would appear in both mirrors. Then, carefully, breathlessly, he opened his eyes, then whooped as he realized that each detail in the mirrors had been captured in his mind.

The whole network shuddered at the slight lapse in concentration, the fruit pieces banged awkwardly into each other, one of the mirrors dipped as the other tilted too far, and a few moist seeds plopped to the carpet, but Yukishiro was still elated.

"I've gotten better," he whispered to himself in excitement. "I'm so much stronger now." Shishio was right. Killing those scumbags, embracing his anger, even entertaining his fear - it had all only served to draw him further into the power of the Force, had helped him grow in this ability that he thought had been taken from him in childhood. "You were wrong, Father," Yukishiro said aloud. "This power isn't dangerous, not to me. It isn't to be feared. It's my destiny." He frowned, gritting his teeth a little. "Did you know that, Father? Did you know that I was meant to master the Force's secrets when you told me to suppress my power and never use it again?"

Everything but the weapon hit the floor. One of the mirrors cracked; the fruit began leaking colorful smears. "For your own sake, I hope you were just..._misguided_ in trying to protect me. Because if you were deliberately trying to hold me back, I'll..."

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin might once have had a hard time getting into one of the swankiest theaters on the planet, with his customary shabby clothes, short height, and humble manner. However, these days people were beginning to look askance at him, to let their eyes rove over the red hair and the lightsaber at his belt before making way for him, as if rumors had begun spreading.

"Ah, yes - the chancellor has been expecting you."

Shishio's name carried a lot of weight these days, Kenshin supposed. Seeing as how he was practically the de facto ruler of the entire galaxy. _'I hope this war ends soon,'_ Kenshin thought uneasily. For many reasons, one of them being that he was finding his special assignments to be more and more distasteful. _'Tomoe...sometimes I think you're the only thing that's keeping me sane...'_

"Is that you, Kenshin?"

He blinked and hurried into the private box that he realized he had been daydreaming outside of. "Chancellor," he said, bowing in greeting. "You called for me?"

"Come, sit," Shishio said pleasantly, waving away his companions at the same time. Kenshin watched, a little surprised, as everyone else in the box rose and drifted away without a word.

"Um...you wanted to speak to me, sir?"

"No, I don't, I just called you all the way over here to watch the space opera with me," Shishio said impatiently. "Of course I want to talk to you. So, Kenshin. How are things?"

"...Good." Usually, people who asked that question did not want a literal answer.

"I'izuka tells me that you've been doing a fantastic job."

Kenshin winced, thinking of the target he had killed, not to mention of all the bodyguards who had fallen at his hands. "Not really... By the way, sir, I've been meaning to ask you something. The other day I tried to look up some of my earlier targets, to see how they fared in their trials, but I couldn't find anything in the court records. Do you know where I can find information about them? I'm...curious."

Shishio waved that away impatiently. "Never mind that, you've got far more important things to occupy your time with. Kenshin, did you get my message about the newest Constitutional amendment we passed in the Senate the other day?"

Kenshin shifted uncomfortably. "You mean the one about how anyone with sufficient evidence against them for treason can be legally executed without a formal trial?"

"That's the one. I just wanted to make sure you understood, Kenshin. All the lawyers and red tape have gotten ridiculous, especially in light of all these recent arrests. Those criminals you're so _curious_ about? There's no records on them because they're still cooling their heels in jail. The judicial system is such a tangled mess now that it might be _years_ before they'll be able to stand trial."

"Really?" Kenshin was frowning. "That's terrible, but...will it really help matters to - to throw these instant executions into the mix? It seems...to me, it seems kind of extreme..."

"Nonsense, it will make things run much more smoothly. Now, watch the show. It got rave reviews and is said to be spectacular."

"Is that so?" Kenshin watched for a few minutes. "It looks like a bunch of squid swimming around in circles."

"I know, right? Someone should shoot those reviewers."

Kenshin gave him a startled look.

"Kidding, kidding! Say, Kenshin. You look like you haven't been sleeping well. Is there anything on your mind? Anything in particular that you've been really worried about for a while? Come on. We're best friends, you can tell me."

Kenshin squirmed. He would hesitate to call Chancellor Shishio his best friend. "Well...not that I'm complaining, I know I have a duty, and I am willing to fulfill it if it means we will see peace in the galaxy again...but...um, is there any chance you that you, perhaps, have one or two other people who could...maybe take over for a while? Just for a very little while, so I can kind of...catch my breath?"

_'Why,'_ Shishio thought, gritting his teeth, _'WHY was this idiot cast in the role of the second-greatest villain of all time?'_ Out loud, however, all he said was, "Oh, don't worry about the hitokiri thing, it's your wife I'm thinking about, Kenshin."

Kenshin was startled. "Hitokiri?"

"Sorry, slip of the tongue. Now focus! Your wife!"

"You mean Tomoe?" Kenshin frowned, then drew himself up in his seat and looked hard at the chancellor. "Why, sir? Do you know of any attack that's been planned against her?"

Shishio was about five seconds away from storming out of the box, into the break room for a quick snack, and then out of the fic altogether. "Oh, no, no, nothing like that. It's just that - you know how omniscient and awesome I am. I can see people's thoughts, you know."

Kenshin blinked. "Really?"

"Yes." Shishio gave one of the smirks he did so well. "You've been having some...interesting dreams, haven't you?"

Kenshin looked away. "'Interesting' is not exactly the word I would choose."

"So, tell me," Shishio said with mock-sympathy, "when are the two of you expecting?"

"We're not," Kenshin grumbled, "why do people keep asking me that?"

Shishio, pretty much at the end of his patience, was about to draw his sword for a Homura Dama, when Kenshin suddenly exclaimed, "Wait, you mean that you can see what I _dream_ about?" Which was a disturbing thought.

"Kenshin," Shishio said through gritted teeth, "I regret to inform you that if you don't start looking at this Jedi business from a different point of view, your wife is going to die."

"I WON'T let that happen," Kenshin said fiercely.

"Oh, good. Let me give you a hint, then, on how you can save her."

"Save her from what?"

"Will you just shut up for _two seconds_ and let me get on with the plot?" Shishio thundered. "I swear, you yak away more than _I_ do."

Kenshin blinked. "Um...have I displeased you in any way, chancellor?"

"No," Shishio lied. "Now, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was an idiotic dark lord who taught his intelligent, handsome, and amazingly talented apprentice how to bring the dead back to life."

"Huh?" Kenshin said in confusion. "Don't you mean that he found out how to keep people from dying by influencing midi-chlorians to-?"

It was the last straw. Shishio flung himself on the young man in an irritated fury, so that Kenshin was forced to fight for his head against the ruler of the galaxy. Their epic battle crashed through the theater, raging for about twenty minutes until Shishio had finally blasted the young Jedi into a mostly-unconscious heap on the floor.

"That felt good," he mused, sheathing his sword again. "Anyway, so this promising apprentice killed the thickheaded master as soon as all the secrets of the Force had been learned, and he went on to rule the galaxy and live a happy and satisfied life, except for the constant nagging urge to gain more and more power. But that's okay, because the universe is infinite and therefore there's plenty still left to conquer."

Shishio pulled the script out of his pocket, scanned it quickly, then folded it up and put it back. "And if you learn the ways of the Dark Side, the stuff that those Jedi sissies don't dare even talk about, you'll be able to save Tomoe's life yadda yadda yadda." He spun on his heel and marched away, yelling for someone named "Yumi" who technically was not supposed to have been born yet.

Still on the floor, Kenshin stirred pathetically. "Ow..."

0-0-0-0-0

"Feeling better?"

"No," Kenshin mumbled. "The chancellor sure packs a punch." He winced as his wife took the healing pack out of his hands and pressed it gently against one of his black eyes again.

"So you're saying that he attacked you because you talked so much?"

"I get confused," Kenshin tried to explain. "There's, like two or three scripts, all saying things that are _kind_ of the same but also really different, and sometimes I get more into character than others, except I'm kind of playing two characters and...I get confused."

"I know how you feel," she said sympathetically. "Though, not having the central role myself, I imagine it must be much harder for you."

"Do you think he really meant that, about the Dark Side of the Force having powers the Jedi never even dreamed of?" Kenshin asked worriedly. "It's like...he made it sound like the Dark Side was _stronger_, or something."

"My love, when has evil ever been able to triumph over good?"

"Usually in those Doomed By Canon prequels, which I'm pretty sure this is."

"...True. But you are the hero, after all. As long as you follow the plot, everything will turn out all right eventually."

"I dunno, I just keep feeling like I'm missing something," Kenshin mumbled. He sighed and lay back in the chair, making it recline. Tomoe picked up the remote for the lights and dimmed them, which he appreciated. "Tomoe, are you _sure_ you're not pregnant?"

"My love, I am not going to die in childbirth," she said firmly.

"I guess you're right." He paused. "Yet I still have the very uncomfortable nagging thought that you'll...I don't know...die of something else."

She arched an eyebrow. "Even if that were true, do you really think you could save me by Sith arts?"

"It's not like the Jedi ones have been doing me much good," Kenshin said slowly. He thought of how he had been using his skills lately. "It...only gets worse each time, not better. Sometimes I feel like it's poisoning me somehow. The Jedi have never liked me to begin with. What if...they really have been leading me wrong, trying to get me to self-destruct so they can get rid of me for good?"

"Aren't you mixing it up a little?" Tomoe suggested. "Your work is for the chancellor, who seemed to like you before you annoyed him. Your ability to do his bidding was given to you by the Jedi who don't trust you. It's like you can't win either way."

Kenshin sat up slowly. "Is it possible that I could have been getting it wrong all this time?" he murmured. "Katsura has taught and supported me for as long as I've known him, but he had to defy the Council to do so. My own masters don't trust me. The chancellor has my loyalty, even though it's killing me to obey him. I don't understand...who am I supposed to follow?"

"This war has been hard on us all," Tomoe said softly. "I think you need to stop considering the Council _or_ the chancellor for a moment, and decide for yourself what is right. For yourself," she added sharply. "Don't bring me into it, either. With or without me, you have your own life to live, dear one, as do I. I don't want to be the deciding factor of your choices."

He studied her for a while. Then he smiled and lifted a hand to affectionately caress her cheek. "You're so strong, Tomoe. You've become a part of me...and I don't think I can make a decision without taking you into consideration."

Her eyes widened a little as she stared at him, and her breathing became a little faster. "So you're saying...that if what you believe to be the right course of action were ever to come at the cost of my own safety...you would choose _me_?"

He thought a while. "...I guess I see what you're saying," he admitted. "I...I don't know, Tomoe. Maybe...maybe I won't know for sure until I've been tested."

After a moment, she leaned her head to rest on his shoulder. "Then I pray you will never be tested on such a thing," she whispered.

0-0-0-0-0

"What are you waiting for, Kenshin?" I'izuka asked.

Kenshin looked into the wide eyes of the woman whose throat he was holding his lightsaber blade near, preventing her attempted escape out the window. "I'izuka," he said quietly, "just because I am permitted to execute traitors on the spot now does not mean I'm required to. Where are your men?"

"Didn't bring any," I'izuka said in surprise. "With the way things are now, Shishio said we didn't need them."

Kenshin's eyes flicked to him in surprise. He was warned only by a desperate war-cry from his hostage, and then only enough to leap back from the knife she was suddenly sweeping at his midsection. Caught off balance, he brought his saber up to knock the weapon out of her hand as she came raging at him; then she was smashing a vase beside her to get at the blaster hidden inside, he aimed for the weapon, missed because she moved too fast and he would have hit her shoulder instead; the gun fired - and I'izuka cried out.

"I'izuka!" Kenshin shouted, not daring to tear his eyes away from his opponent, "Are you all right?"

"I'm hit!" the other man gasped, sounding shocked and near tears in a childish sort of way. "She shot me!"

She was about to do the same to Kenshin as well. He plunged the lightsaber into her chest just as the blaster went off again; he felt the heat of the bolt as it zinged through his sleeve, singeing a few hairs on his arm. Then the woman slumped to the floor, leaving Kenshin to stare at her corpse. It took him a while to respond to I'izuka's whining, and then when he moved to help, it was with slow, stumbling steps, as if he was stuck in a horrible dream.

0-0-0-0-0

"See for yourself." Shishio opened the holo-vid he had Photoshopped together and began playing it for Yukishiro.

In the holo, someone in Jedi robes was walking. The figure suddenly crouched and waited for a while, then raised an arm. On the other side of the holo, a Nubian ship was coming into view, its reflective surfaces distorted by the recording technology. An object floated through the air and attached itself to the ship, apparently via the Force through the will of the crouching Jedi.

The ship finished docking, and a group of people began to disembark. Yukishiro caught his breath when he recognized the elaborate costume that the decoy had been wearing the day of the attempted assassination on his sister. Then an explosion, originating from the object that had been attached to the ship.

Even though Yukishiro knew that the woman in the holo was not actually his sister, he still had to glance away as the explosion, rendered nearly invisible in the recording, enveloped her body. When he looked back, the dying woman was sprawled on the ground, and survivors of the blast were being cut down by the Jedi, who had run out into the open with his lightsaber flashing in his hand. At the edge of the holo, the real Tomoe was being dragged away by the ship's captain until they both disappeared at the edge of the recording's range.

The holo ended.

Yukishiro sat there for a while, his fists clenched on his knees. Shishio watched him patiently.

"I can't believe it," the young man said numbly.

"You _have_ been killing traitors all this time," Shishio pointed out.

"But...I didn't know they were Jedi. The Jedi are supposed to be doing their jobs protecting people, not running around trying to...trying to blow them up." Yukishiro's breath was coming hard. "Why would they want to kill my sister?"

"Who knows. She is a very prominent member of the Senate, and would serve as great hindrance to them if their plan really is to take over the Republic. Perhaps they want to eliminate all potential opposition before they reveal themselves."

Yukishiro got shakily to his feet. "I have to think about this. I have to talk to my sister."

"All right." Shishio lifted his eyebrow. "What will you do once your mind is made up?"

"I'm going to protect my sister, of course!" Yukishiro shouted. "What are you, stupid?" He hurried from the room.

Shishio rolled his eyes. "No, you are, you gullible little puppet." Then he laughed.

0-0-0-0-0

While all this was going on, Katsura was searching Utapau until he found a base where the natives were being held hostage by Usui. It was up to him to distract the dark warrior until clone troops could arrive, a task which he did easily.

"What? That's IT for my screen time? Curse that Raberba woman!" Usui howled with his dying breath.

Katsura blinked as he lowered his weapon. "Not me?"

"Yeah, curse you, too!" Usui spat. Then he died. Before the Jedi's arrival, he had had time to relocate the Separatist leaders to the volcanic planet of Mustafar ("I've never really understood why we're even in the script," one of the Separatists commented en route, "since we don't even do anything important in the whole story. Except, you know, die"). However the Utapauans did not know this, and would not have cared even if they had, so they cheered ecstatically anyway. Some of them even broke out into song.

"Ding, dong, the blind jerk's dead! Which blind jerk? The creepy one! Ding, dong, the creepy blind jerk's-"

"Please," Katsura interrupted hastily, "no singing. In consideration of my health." Luckily, they were only too happy to comply with their rescuer's wishes.

Back on Coruscant, Kenshin, alone in the sunset-bathed Council room, was working himself into a nice long angstfest about how the Jedi Council didn't trust or like him, how he wanted to be stronger in order to save his beloved Tomoe, how he would really like to be just a little bit taller, etc. Just when he was really getting into it, the door whooshed open and a random Jedi Master walked in.

"Kenshin, there's been news from Katsura."

"Really? What did he say?" the young man asked at once, hurrying to meet him.

"It seems like he has executed Usui with no problem."

"Why would there be a problem? He's _Master Katsura_."

"...Anyway, we want you to go break this news to Chancellor Shishio."

Kenshin gave him a sidelong look. "I'm pretty sure that the chancellor already knows. He, um, knows everything." He gave a little involuntary shiver.

"Nonsense, you're just making excuses. Now get going, and report Shishio's reaction to us. There's something fishy about that man, and we want to know if he's really on our side or not."

"Well, I will tell him, but since he probably already knows, trying to gauge his reaction seems kind of pointless."

The Jedi leveled a Look at him. "Young man. We don't like you. Do you or do you not wish to get into our good graces?"

"Actually, I've just been wondering that myself-"

"JUST GO!"

"...Yes, sir." Kenshin bowed, feeling uncomfortably sarcastic as he did so.

When Kenshin was ushered into Shishio's office, he found the chancellor posing magnificently before the large window overlooking the city.

"Chancellor?"

Shishio looked up and smiled. "Well, well. If it isn't my rising star, come to tell me of Usui's death on Utapau."

Kenshin fidgeted, unable to convince his hand to stray very far from his weapon. "Yes. I've come to tell you that Master Katsura has executed the villain Usui on Utapau."

"Thank you for bringing me this perfectly useless piece of news, Kenshin."

"You're welcome." The two studied each other for a while, Shishio smirking thoughtfully, Kenshin glaring warily. "All right, well, I'm going to leave now."

"No. Stay a while, Kenshin."

Kenshin sighed.

"Have you given any thought to what we talked about earlier?"

"You mean when you tried to kill me at the theater?"

"Yes, at the theater," Shishio agreed coolly. "Your wife - she's not looking very well these days, is she."

"Tomoe is _fine_, thank you."

"Rather sickly girl, isn't she."

"Look, she may not be some l33t bokutou-wielding warrior princess, but she's not a pansy either, okay?"

"I fear she might not fare well when the child's time comes."

"For the last time, Tomoe is not pregnant!"

"Haven't you guessed by now that I'm not listening to a word you say?"

"Why _not_? People never listen to me, and this is usually why I end up having to beat them up!"

Shishio smirked. "Do you intend to beat _me_ up, Kenshin?"

"Yes!" the young man cried wildly, "Because you're a Sith lord, aren't you? You're the one who's behind all the terrible things happening in the Republic! I know because of your creepy vibes! And because you made me kill people! And because your sword smells like burning human flesh! And because you also have a lightsaber - that's _red_!"

"Very good, Kenshin. But I'm afraid that knowledge won't help you a bit." And with that, Shishio flew at him, red lightsaber raised, so swiftly that Kenshin only had time to fling himself out of the way. As he rolled, he managed to get his own lightsaber, which was already gripped in his hand, detached from his belt and activated by the time he had swept back to his feet.

Light from their clashing blades crackled, and the scream of their weapons was thunderous in Kenshin's ears as he warded of the chancellor's relentless attacks. Kenshin was not nearly as afraid or confused as he had expected to be. His harsh anxiety for Tomoe fueled the rising fury he felt at his adversary, as he realized how much evil Shishio was in a position to spread throughout the body of the Republic. "How could you? The people trust you! As leader, you're supposed to be helping to make their lives _better_, not spreading lies and discord from even the highest ranks of the government!"

"Ah, Kenshin," Shishio sighed, shaking his head in mock-disappointment. "How little you understand. The general public - you see them as human beings, as individuals, as a mass of humanity deserving of the best life has to offer." As he spoke, he swiped and thrust with his lightsaber, calling on the Force to wrench heavy furnishings from the walls and hurl them at Kenshin. "What you fail to understand is that they are nothing of the sort."

"Oh," Kenshin snarled, hacking at him furiously, "and I suppose you think that the people under your power are simply mindless idiots just begging to be used in an attempt to slake your ever-growing lust for galactic domination."

"Very good, Kenshin!" Shishio praised. "If you had said 'universal' domination instead of a mere 'galactic,' you would have hit the nail right on the head."

Kenshin paused for a moment, gaping. "I was _exaggerating_!"

"Exactly. Your thinking is far too backwards and uninspired, which is why, despite the potential of your combat abilities, you have proved to be absolutely _useless_ as an evil apprentice so far." When he finished speaking, Shishio dealt his opponent a blow so powerful that Kenshin, even though he blocked it, was sent crashing through a window.

Shishio deactivated his lightsaber and slung it back on his belt. "Good-bye, Kenshin."

0-0-0-0-0

Yukishiro was pacing in a garden, trying to get his thoughts in order so that he could speak coherently to his sister in a way that would not make her coo at him to slow down and please be sensible. He had to convince her that he was a reasonable adult, and not still the kid she sometimes thought he was.

A crashing noise distracted him. Yukishiro frowned and looked up to find Himura Kenshin dangling from a ledge above and to the right of where he was standing. "The gardeners will want to shoot you for getting bloody glass shards all over the lawn."

"Can't be helped," Kenshin said through gritted teeth, his knuckles white from the effort of holding on. "Little brother, do you think you could maybe...?"

"Did someone throw you out a window?" Yukishiro asked interestedly, moving closer and tipping his head back to see where the broken glass (and the blood) had come from.

"Yukishiro, _help_ me!"

The prince folded his arms and did his best to smirk, though his thoughts were a little divided at the moment. "I will if you divorce my sister."

"Yukishiro, get me DOWN," Kenshin finally snarled, his eyes blazing.

Yukishiro saw those eyes and shuddered a little, even as he tapped his finger against his lips thoughtfully. "Hey. _Brother_. Are you angry right now?"

Kenshin made up his mind to attempt a Force-cushioned jump to the ground and then, if he was successful, thrash his little brother-in-law black and blue.

"Are you," Yukishiro continued, "angry enough to kill some people?"

"Like _you_, you mean?" Kenshin growled, trying to brace his feet against the wall in preparation for a flip.

"Like," Yukishiro went on quietly, "the people who want my sister and the rest of the loyalist leaders dead?"

Kenshin was so surprised that he lost his grip, and went tumbling the rest of the way to the ground. Luckily, his fall was broken by the Nubian prince, who was so caught up in visions of vengeance that he did not realize he needed to step out of the way until it was too late.

"Thanks," Kenshin muttered, staggering to his feet. He tried to wipe away the worst of the blood on his face and arms from when he had been cut falling through the window. "What was that you were saying?"

Growling, Yukishiro climbed upright as well. "The Jedi," he said in a low, hot voice. "It's _them_. All along. _They're_ the ones who've been trying to assassinate my sister, who've been causing all this trouble. Those sorcerers have always had the true power, they've always wanted to one day come out of the shadows and rule this galaxy themselves." It was so obvious, now that he knew. He could not believe he hadn't realized it sooner. And now that he had a possible ally to go up against the most powerful warriors in the galaxy with him, he might very well be able to succeed in getting rid of them for good. After this night, Tomoe would be able to live in peace, knowing that those who had wanted her dead were gone. After this night, perhaps Himura Kenshin would earn the right to have taken Yukishiro's sister away from him.

"It can't be," Kenshin was saying. Yet even as the words left his lips, he felt numb, because he _knew_. The Jedi had been careless, to let him sense their malignancy, but it explained so much now: why they would target Tomoe, why they had never warmed to him, perhaps even why the chancellor had been allowed to gain so much power unchecked. "It can't..."

Yukishiro moved in front of him, facing him squarely, his expression hard and determined. "Help me...Brother. We can do it together." Yukishiro hesitated, then raised a hand and laid it uncertainly on Kenshin's shoulder. "Please," he whispered. "I have to keep her safe, and I...I don't know if I can do it without you."

Kenshin looked deep into his brother's eyes, and what he saw there gave him hope. He could not understand why his heart quaked with foreboding as well.

0-0-0

_This one has forsaken the Jedi way forever. The ways of the Force are closed to him. If this one must fight, it will be with this sakabatou._

_To be continued..._

Author's Note: **Again, see previous author's notes. I was frustrated with the Star Wars prequels, and ended up using this fic to vent at times.**


	13. Sith Lord

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode XIII - Sith Lord** (ROUGH DRAFT)**

_The memories are a torment. This one will never forget all those who died at his hands._

0-0-0

"What do you mean Chancellor Shishio is a Sith Lord?" the Jedi Master demanded.

Kenshin looked around at the circle of Jedi, sensing the hostility of their glares, feeling so angry and betrayed and desperate that it was hard to breathe. "Shishio," he repeated, fighting to keep his voice calm. "He's power-mad. He knows the ways of the Dark Side of the Force. He told me himself that he wants nothing less than to put the entire universe under his personal rule, no matter how many lives are lost or shattered along the way."

"And why should we believe _you_, Mr. Chosen One?" one of the Jedi taunted. "More likely, you're the one trying to trick us into betraying the Republic and getting ourselves killed."

Before Kenshin could explode from frustration and hurt, built up over many years of being rejected and mistrusted by the Council, one of the older Jedi spoke up. "It would do no harm to at least go invalidate the boy's claim."

"Or _validate_ it," Kenshin grumbled.

The protests started up at once. "Why should we waste our time-?"

"Why should we spare a second's effort for-?"

"The chancellor will-!"

The Jedi stood up, imperiously raising a paw, and all fell silent. "It would do no harm," he repeated, "if we were to merely check, subtly, on the situation." His eyes roamed over the Council, deftly avoiding the red-haired figure in the center. He added slowly, his voice full of meaning, "Our beloved Republic is in danger, and wherever the threat may come from, it would be wise to destroy it as quickly as possible."

Lightbulbs flickered, and comprehension dawned on many of the expressions.

"Very well, then," one of the other Jedi spoke up, a bit too gleefully. "I'll go with young Aniken here and...er, pay the chancellor a visit."

Kenshin blinked. "You will?" Then he frowned again. "And my name is _Kenshin_, not 'Aniken.'"

"Whatever." The Jedi was already striding to the door. Kenshin forced himself to bow to the rest of the Council, and hurried to follow him.

In the corridor outside, Kenshin was tangled in a mess of conflicting emotions. If the Council really meant what they said, it began to put Yukishiro's claim into doubt. The Jedi would not move against Shishio if they had put him into power in the first place, would they? And Shishio seemed like too strong a person to allow himself to be manipulated by outside forces. Then again, his support in the Senate had to come from _somewhere_, it wasn't like a despot like him could come to power without-

The scream of a lightsaber tore the air. Kenshin cried out and raised an arm just in time - the prosthetic one, luckily, because in the next instant it was struck and damaged beyond repair. He would have to get a new one. "What are you _doing_?" Kenshin cried.

The Jedi smiled grimly. "Eliminating the threat to the Republic, as we should have done long ago."

As Kenshin, still stunned, was groping blindly for his own weapon, a figure came hurtling out of nowhere.

The Jedi whirled and raised his lightsaber to defend, but his attacker was not aiming for him directly. Steel smashed down on the lightsaber's hilt and sent it scattering to the ground in useless pieces.

"You?" the Jedi cried in astonishment. "Why-?"

Yukishiro was not interested in mid-battle conversation. He swept his sword through the man's neck, kicked the headless body to the floor for good measure, then wiped and sheathed his blade. He turned to Kenshin. "Idiot." It was difficult to speak. Yukishiro did not realize how hard he had been clenching his teeth.

Kenshin was staring at the corpse. "...Yukishiro."

"_Now_ do you see?" the prince said grimly.

Kenshin closed his eyes. "They never believed me at all. They just pretended to go along with what I said so that they could finish me off."

"So your little test is done, then?" Yukishiro said impatiently. "Can we _please_ kill the rest of them now?"

Shakily, Kenshin finally got his lightsaber unclipped from his belt. Then his eyes narrowed, he tightened his grip, and the weapon came to life, pulsing in readiness. "Yes. We'll take care of the ones in the council room first, then we'll...have to go to the temple. I don't even want to think about the ones who are scattered offworld yet."

Then he remembered what had happened to his arm. "Though we'll have to stop by a prosthetics shop pretty soon."

0-0-0-0-0

Tomoe sat alone in the central room of their apartment, holding the sakabatou in her hands. It had finally been finished that morning, and delivered while Kenshin was out. The sooner she could get this gift into his hands, the better.

She was trembling, though she did not know why. She had not been able to contact her husband; he was not answering his communicator, and no one seemed to know where he was. She had a very, very bad feeling about this.

0-0-0-0-0

It had been bad enough, taking life in ones or twos, with time to catch his breath and try to lock away the memories between assignments.

This was worse. It was Jedi at the peak of their powers, one after the other after the other, all refusing to die easily or painlessly, leaving no mark on his lightsaber's blade but staining his hands red with each of their defeats. For some reason the clone army had shown up as well to join in the attack on the Jedi temple. Kenshin did not want to think about the implications of that, and he did not have time to, anyway. What he accepted for now was that, whatever the reason, the clones were on his side, battling the traitors and offering valuable backup. He would deal with the aftermath when the time came.

Yukishiro seemed unaffected by the slaughter - no, not unaffected. His eyes were burning like a tiger's, his strength seeming to grow with each kill. Soon he began to laugh, his frenzied howls raising the hairs on the back of Kenshin's neck. "You'll _pay_! You'll all _pay_!"

"Yukishiro," Kenshin whispered, but his brother seemed to be gone, disappeared behind the battle madness, past hearing or feeling. The spilled blood did not all belong to the prince's enemies; he was wounded as well, but he seemed to be completely oblivious to any pain. "Yukishiro!"

The prince whirled to face him, eyes alight. "We've cleaned out this hall! Kenshin, you take the big room down there. I'm gonna make my way back to the eastern wing, and the clones can finish off any stragglers. Meet me at the front when you're done! But I'm warning you, I won't wait long!"

Kenshin hovered, undecided for a minute. Then, once Yukishiro was too far away to chase down, Kenshin cursed and flung himself into the room where he sensed a fairly large group of people waiting. He would have his work cut out for him-

-or not.

Kenshin stared as frightened little faces began to emerge, as small figures crept out from behind the room's furniture and huddled about him. This was where the younglings had been hiding.

"Ken-nii, they're attacking the temple!" one of the children cried in distress. "What do we do?"

"What do we do, Ken-nii?"

"I c-can fight, Ken-nii...I don't have a l-lightsaber, but I found this club th-thing, I can fight..."

"K-Ken-nii, I'm scared," one of the little girls wailed, beginning to sob. Without a second thought, Kenshin scooped her up, holding her close in one arm as he briefly rested his other hand on all the heads and shoulders he could reach, trying to comfort the children who were clinging to him in such terror.

"Don't be frightened," he told them. There was no way he could do it. Jedi they may be training to be, but nowhere in the depths of his soul could Kenshin ever find the strength or will or barest desire to harm these children. "It will be all right."

He set the little girl on her feet again and firmly took her hand. "Come, I'll show you a way out. You have to run. Those with family or friends nearby, take shelter there and get offworld as soon as you can. Do you understand me? You _have_ to find a way to get on a ship and leave Coruscant, and go as far away as you can until it is safe here for Jedi again."

"What if we don't know anyone here?" one of them asked fearfully.

"I don't have a family," another one quavered. "You're my family, all the Jedi in the temple are my family. I don't have anywhere else to go."

"I'll find a way. Do you know the candy shop down on 3471 Street, with the Moogle on its sign?"

The children nodded eagerly.

"There's an alley between that shop and the building next to it. Gather there, out of sight. I'll be right behind you, covering your escape. Once it's safe for me to meet with you again, I'll take you home with me until I can get off-planet transportation for you."

"Really?"

"You'll save us, Ken-nii?"

"Don't let go of my hand!"

"Just for a little while, sweetheart," he said soothingly. They had exited through the room's service doors and were now moving rapidly through a cramped maintenance corridor. "I'll see you soon, but you have to be brave until then, all right?"

They reached a grate where waste material from one of the laundry chutes was blown out into a dumpster. It was a large grate, and all the children were still small enough to fit through it, though it would have been impossible for a human adult. Kenshin unlatched the grate and helped the children through, one by one, until they had all climbed down and were huddled beside the dumpster. The innocent, imploring eyes in their upturned faces were breaking his heart.

"What are you waiting for?" he said urgently. "Go now - but be careful. Look out for clones, and for Yukishiro. Don't trust anyone you don't recognize, even if they're wearing Jedi robes. Remember, where are you going to wait for me?"

"The Moogle store," a few of them said dolefully.

"Good." Kenshin took a breath to steady himself and made shooing motions with his hands. "Off with you. It will be all right." It was not until after he had ducked back inside, closed the grate, and waited a minute before he started to hear the reluctant sounds of their footsteps. He listened tensely as they moved off, wanting very much to make his way back to the front entrance and get in place to defend them. Just when he was certain that they were all on the move and he was about to leave, he heard the first scream.

"What?" Heart racing, Kenshin wrenched the grate open again and forced as much of himself as he could through the opening in order to see what was happening.

Clone soldiers. Blaster shots.

"No!" Kenshin screamed. "NO!"

His cries were drowned out by the children's. He saw small bodies littering the ground. Other figures were fleeing, but did not get far. "STOP IT!"

One of the clones turned toward the sound of his voice, and the soldier pulled off his helmet. Kenshin nearly choked. The familiar face of Fujita Gorou, up until now always simpering and cheerfully smiling, had turned hard and cold and evil. The soldier smiled.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Kenshin shoved himself back through the grate and whirled, running up the corridor again, almost blinded by rage and horror. He had to make it outside before...before...

He was too late, of course. Even half the bodies were gone as the clones efficiently cleared away the children's corpses, one of them keeping count and adding to the totals of all the Jedi who had already been murdered.

"You _monsters_!" Most of the clones seemed to be surprised at his aggressive approach, and three of them fell immediately in the wake of his blade. The unmasked one calmly raised his blaster and fired several shots. Kenshin deflected each blast without even thinking and, when one of the rebounds hit the soldier in the shoulder, Kenshin did not hesitate to bring his weapon slashing through the man's neck. It infuriated him further when he saw that the now-lifeless head rolling at his feet had never lost its sadistic smirk.

"Blast him!" one of the surviving clones was shouting to the others. "He's an enemy!" Those were the last words he spoke, as Kenshin cut him down as well. Within seconds, every single clone soldier was dead, their bodies sprawled atop or beside those of the children.

Kenshin fell to his knees and wept.

0-0-0-0-0

Throughout the galaxy, as many Jedi Masters were leading their clone troops against Separatist droid armies, new orders began coming in, unbeknownst to them. They were slaughtered quickly, most of them in the back, as their clone allies coolly betrayed them.

Katsura was a little quicker on the uptake than most of them. On Utapau, as he was trying to extricate himself from a celebration involving lullabies and lollipops, he noticed one of the clone soldiers talking quietly to a hologram of the chancellor on his communicator. Something about it gave Katsura a bad feeling.

Taking the giant lollipop someone had handed him, he began using it to beat his way out of the throng of overexcited Utapauans, trying to get to the closest vehicle. He had an increasing sense of urgency to get out of here, to leave before...

He had fought his way out of the crowd, sprinted a short distance, and was just laying a hand on the hatch controls of a speeder close to one of the ledges, when he sensed weapons being trained on him. Instantly, Katsura's lightsaber was ignited and in his hand. Deflecting blaster fire the entire time, he carefully eased into the speeder and, with some difficulty, managed to power it up with his foot. Finally the hatch closed, offering some protection, at which point he wasted no time in getting the thing off the ground and starting to steer it out toward the canyon.

He had just cleared the ledge when the speeder suddenly lurched. Someone had scored a hit on one of the engines. Cursing, Katsura frantically yanked and pushed and flipped things on the control panel, but it was no use. The vehicle began to lose altitude, and the next minute Master Katsura Kogorou was plummeting, not to his supposed death, but to his real one.

0-0-0-0-0

Yukishiro still had too much energy. He could not bear walking, and was instead running through the streets of Coruscant, heading back to the capitol building. It was only with great self-control that he refrained from reaching out to kill innocent pedestrians in his wake. Bloodlust was still coursing through him, but he also kept thinking of Tomoe's face with some uneasiness. He never had gotten to speak with her.

"She'll see it my way," he told himself. "She'll understand if I explain it right..." She might still frown at him if she knew he wanted to slaughter everyone in his path, though, so he managed to keep himself in check.

He was allowed up to the chancellor's office without any trouble. Indeed, Shishio seemed to have been expecting him. "Hello, Yukishiro." The man wrinkled his nose. "Gah, you smell. Couldn't have been bothered to shower before you came back from your fun little massacre?"

Yukishiro looked down at his blood-spattered clothes. "I didn't think of it."

"Clearly. Well, no matter. Come here, my young apprentice."

Yukishiro approached warily. "I used my sword. Not the lightsaber. I mean, the lightsaber's really cool and all..." He smiled. "But I like my sword better. It makes blood."

"I would have to agree with you there," Shishio said. "Yukishiro, you proved yourself well. I think it's high time that you underwent the ceremony."

Yukishiro's eyes gleamed. "The one that makes me a true Sith Master?"

"That would be the one. Kneel."

Yukishiro frowned. "No."

They had a glare fight over this. Yukishiro won, mostly because his eyes were still glowing from the after-effects of the battle. Shishio decided that getting his way would be more trouble than it was worth in this case.

"Fine, don't kneel. However, you must pledge yourself to my service."

"I promise that I'll use the Force as you taught me to keep my sister safe and..." Yukishiro tilted his head curiously. "What do Sith do, anyway?"

"Rule the galaxy with an iron fist," Shishio suggested. "Except that that's my job. You can have a never-ending quest for power...except that you're not allowed to exceed my own abilities."

"Man, I don't care, just initiate me already! What's my new Sith name?"

"Enishi," Shishio decided. "You are Darth Enishi."

"Enishi." The younger dark lord tried out the name experimentally. "I like it. Except that I think it's too easy to make cute nicknames out of."

"Too late, Eni-chan."

Darth Enishi glared.

"Now, I have another assignment for you. You remember those little Separatists who were sent to Mustafar?"

"Who?"

"You know. The Separatists. The useless plot tools who only existed in this installment to give Anakin a chance to show off his supreme evilness."

"Oh yeah."

"It's your turn, Darth Enishi. Annihilate them."

Enishi smiled. "It will be a pleasure, Shishio."

As Darth Enishi left, he passed a large, white-cloaked figure on the steps of the capitol who was heading inside. The two were strangers to each other, and offered no acknowledgment. Thus, Enishi unknowingly met the man whom he would not-kill years later.

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin was just coming out of the elevator when he suddenly stumbled against the wall. He had sensed it, through the Force. The life of someone close to him had just been snuffed out. "Master Katsura?" he whispered. He began to search his feelings, sifting through his senses, reaching out for his friend and mentor. There was nothing. Katsura was gone.

Inside the apartment, Tomoe frowned when she heard sounds coming from outside. Putting on a robe, she went out into the hall and found her husband on hands and knees a few steps from their door, sobbing.

"Kenshin!" She hurried over to him, kneeling down and placing her hands on his shoulders. "Dear one, what is it? What's happened?"

"Katsura," Kenshin gasped. "He's dead. The children are dead. They're all dead. _I killed them._"

"What are you talking about?" Eventually she was able to coax him inside, where she forced him to drink something that burned his throat but seemed to clear his mind.

He sat with his head resting limply against her shoulder, trying to make his breaths deep and even. It was very difficult. Eventually he began to speak, telling her of everything he had been keeping secret up until now, all the terrible things he had done, the mistakes he had made. He cringed with shame, but did not care anymore how she saw him. She had to know the truth about the monster she had married.

When he finished, she was silent for a long time. Finally she murmured helplessly, "How did it come to this?"

There was a sudden pounding on their door. Kenshin leaped to his feet, snatching wildly at his lightsaber. Tomoe also rose, her gaze intent on the door.

"Neesan!" a muffled voice shouted from the hall. "It's me, let me in!"

"I don't want him near you," Kenshin hissed.

"He is my brother." After sharing an uneasy look, Tomoe started for the door, reaching out for the latch, but it was Kenshin who pushed her protectively behind him and opened the door himself.

Tomoe gasped when she saw that her brother was covered in dried blood. Kenshin and Yukishiro might have fought in the same battle, but the difference in their weapons was more significant than she had realized.

"Neesan." Enishi marched straight inside as if he lived there, pushed Kenshin aside, and pulled his sister into a tight hug. "I have to leave for a while, Sis, but I'll be back soon." He pulled back a little and smiled. "Don't worry. You're safe now. You don't have to worry about the Jedi trying to hurt you ever again."

She swallowed. "So Kenshin has told me."

"I just wanted to see you once more before I left, Neesan."

"Where are you going, Yuki?" Tomoe asked quickly.

He shrugged. "Mustafar. I've got some business there."

"We're coming with you."

"What? No!" Enishi frowned and held up a hand as if that would stop her. "You have to stay here." He looked at the other man. "Kenshin, you'll keep her safe while I'm gone?"

"I'll protect her," Kenshin said warily.

"Good." Enishi nodded. He took in a deep breath, then looked around and bounced a little on his heels as if his business was done but he was reluctant to go. "I guess I'll be off, then."

"Good-bye, Yuki," Tomoe murmured. Kenshin glanced at her.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Enishi smiled one more time, then left.

Kenshin turned to his wife. "We're going to follow him, aren't we?"

"Of course. Let me get into some more suitable clothes, and then we will be off." She glanced at the sheathed sakabatou as she passed it on her way to the bedroom, but now was not the time for Kenshin to be wielding a pacifist's sword. Later, perhaps, when things were not so dangerous. Still, it could not hurt to bring it along.

0-0-0-0-0

It was chaos out on the streets. Apparently there was some epic battle going on between two strong opponents. Kenshin and Tomoe did not care until one of the fighters came crashing through a window to land practically at their feet. It was Shishio.

The man flung himself back upright, eyes blazing with battle fury. A white cloaked figure jumped down and landed in front of him, sword at the ready.

"You!" Kenshin exclaimed in surprise, recognizing Hiko Seijuurou. "What are you doing here?"

"Couldn't put it off any longer," the larger man growled, his eyes fixed on Shishio. "Had to stop this power-crazed mutant. Did you know that he's declared himself emperor now? That apparently we're no longer a Republic?"

"What?" Tomoe gasped. Behind her, Tsubame made soft beeping noises of alarm.

"I'm not surprised," Kenshin said grimly. "Do you want my help?"

"I think I can handle it, now that I've got his lightsaber." Hiko tossed it to Kenshin, who would have caught it if Shishio had not come crashing into him. The two men scuffled on the pavement like schoolboys until their scrabbling hands knocked Shishio's lightsaber out of both their reaches. It landed at Tomoe's feet. She calmly picked it up and slipped it down the front of her shirt, causing Kenshin and Shishio to exchange a series of highly meaningful glares.

Then Shishio got up, drawing his sword and making a disgusted sound. "No matter. I can defeat you with steel anyway."

"You can try," Hiko mocked.

"Yes, well, you two do that," Kenshin said, getting up and starting to herd Tomoe and Tsubame away. "We need to go to Mustafar, so we'll see you later."

After the three of them had gone into the parking garage, Hiko and Shishio eyed each other for a long moment. Their battle resumed, somewhat half-heartedly - Shishio seemed distracted and disgruntled rather than consumed with bloodthirsty passion. It meant that he was a little harder to take advantage of; Hiko had to actually put some effort into the battle.

Finally, Shishio skidded to a halt and threw up his hands in frustration. "That *** still has my lightsaber. I'm going after her." He sheathed his sword and ran to find a space cruiser.

Hiko, shouting some nasty language at him, strode off to find his own ship, and the two of them blasted off before the exhaust from Kenshin and Tomoe's vehicle had even faded from the dark sky.

0-0-0-0-0

Darth Enishi landed on the volcanic planet of Mustafar, looked around, sighed, started heading off to complete his boring old mission...then saw something that gave him the idea for a brilliant prank. Giggling, he ran instead to a guard tower where a lovely high-powered blaster gun was just sitting there, waiting for him. He seated himself behind it, played around with the controls for a while, then centered the aiming mechanism on the sky, waiting for someone, anyone, to come into his airspace.

He did not have to wait long. A ship, Nubian by the look of it, came drifting toward the landing bay. Wondering idly what a ship from Naboo would be doing all the way out here, Enishi gleefully began firing.

It was hilarious, watching the shiny thing lurch and then start sparking and whining like a one-winged bird. It slid awkwardly onto the landing platform with a delightful smashing sound. Then a series of beeping noises alerted him to the two other ships that had appeared, making the game that much more interesting.

A couple of human figures were struggling out of the first ship even as Enishi began firing at the other two. Joining in the game, the still-airborne ships began firing back, so that Enishi whooped and eagerly returned fire. An explosion boomed from somewhere near the guard tower's base. As if in answer, one of the first ship's wings caught fire as the other ship made a sort of swirly flip and managed to land before its pilot lost control entirely.

Alarms were now blaring. Among other things, one of his gun's barrels was jammed, and Enishi made a few adjustments so that it would not blow up the next time he tried to fire it. Then he aimed at one of the ships again and began shooting, yelling with delight as it got pushed to the very end of the landing platform, tipped over the edge...and was swallowed by lava in a last magnificent explosion. It was beautiful.

So he started on the second ship, at which point he realized that at least one of the pilots had survived and was now leaping like an acrobat from ledge to ledge up the side of the guard tower. His gun was far too big to aim at such a small target, not to mention its limited reach did not allow it to turn backwards. Cursing, Enishi clambered out of the gunner's chair and drew his sword, running to meet his new playmate.

Then said playmate crashed through a window and loomed menacingly - it was the white-cloaked guy from the capitol. Enishi saw the look in his eyes and gulped.

"You," Hiko growled. "You're the one who blasted my ship to ash?"

For once, a rare sense of self-preservation crept over the reckless Nubian prince. "Nope. Must have been someone else."

Hiko took up a battle stance. "I can smell lies, pretty boy. You are going to die."

Enishi fled, shrieking, and Hiko gave relentless pursuit.

Outside, Kenshin noticed Shishio nearby and quickly pulled Tomoe and Tsubame behind a wall, where he tried to assess their conditions. "Are you all right? Tomoe, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she assured him.

"I am still in the middle of a systems check," Tsubame said, "but so far I have picked up no significant abnormalities."

"Good. Come on, we've got to find Yukishiro before he gets to the Separatists, and we have to stay out of Shishio's sight." Kenshin expelled a breath and muttered to himself once they were on the move again. "What's he doing here, anyway?"

Tomoe, keenly aware of the lightsaber tucked away amidst her undergarments, did not answer.

The two of them made their way, with Tsubame clunking as fast as it could after them, to the observation tower where the Separatists were holed up.

Immediately upon opening the door, Kenshin whipped his lightsaber out and began deflecting laser fire, as Tomoe and the squealing Tsubame quickly ducked back behind the doorframe. "Stop shooting at us!" Kenshin shouted. "We didn't come here to hurt you!"

"Lying Jedi scum!" one of the Separatists screamed. They were the last words he ever uttered. One of his shots rebounded off Kenshin's blade and hit him in the throat with such force that his neck was broken, and he fell down a corpse.

Kenshin forced his way farther into the room, continuing to defend himself. Although he was trying (and for the most part, failing miserably) to spare their lives at first, this changed as soon as he realized that one or two had managed to slip past him and were running for the corridor - and Tomoe, who managed to shoot them even as they were grasping her arms to use her as a hostage.

"_Stay away from my wife,_" Kenshin thundered. His lightsaber arced, and a head went rolling. Something came hurtling straight at his face; he ducked and whirled, slicing the explosive in two before it could go off, and killing whoever had thrown it with the same swipe.

Soon, he was the only creature breathing in that room. Panting with exertion and dismay, Kenshin warily returned his weapon to his waist and then looked to Tomoe, who came to stand in the doorway with concern on her face. "This wasn't part of the plan," she said softly.

Kenshin strode over to her, pulled her into his arms for a minute and held her tightly. Then he took a deep breath and released her. "Tomoe, I have a bad feeling about this. If we still had a ship, I would ask you to stay safe on it until we can leave again, but now...our ship is gone, and I don't feel comfortable leaving you anywhere else."

Her hands were still resting on his arms, and now her fingers tightened to grip his sleeves. "I wouldn't have stood for it, anyway," she said. "I don't want to be left in the dark, just _waiting_, not knowing if you're dead or alive."

"Stay safe, then," he pleaded. He turned away, quickly gathering up as many fallen weapons as he could carry and giving them to her, filling her hands with them, pushing them into her belt wherever they would fit. "Don't hesitate to shoot or to call for me. You _have_ to make it through this alive, Tomoe."

"I trust you," she said solemnly.

He kissed her. Then they moved on, looking for Yukishiro, following the faint sound of panicked screams.

0-0-0-0-0

"I'm sorry!" Enishi shrieked, diving behind a computer console and chucking a piece of equipment at Hiko's head. "I'll never blow up your ship again, I promise!"

"An easy promise to keep," Hiko thundered as he dodged easily, "seeing as how my ship is now a bunch of melted fragments swirling around in this lava cesspool!"

"Don't kill me!"

"Shut up!"

0-0-0-0-0

The corridor ahead branched out into three different directions. "I'll be _right back_," Kenshin promised anxiously. He headed down the right-hand path to investigate, leaving his wife and the droid at the crossroads.

"Tomoe-san?" Tsubame ventured. "I'm...frightened. I trust Master Kenshin, but...I still have a bad feeling."

Tomoe took its hand reassuringly, patting the knobby metal fingers as if they were real flesh and bone. "To tell the truth, I do too, Tsubame-chan. I've been uneasy for weeks. But we're here now, and we have to be brave."

The droid suddenly gasped. "Someone's coming!"

Tomoe looked up sharply, just as whoever had snuck up on them was dropping down. She was seized from behind before she could turn around. "Hand over my lightsaber, woman, unless you want me to go digging for it myself," Shishio said.

Wordlessly, Tomoe retrieved the weapon and held it out. Shishio snatched it out of her hand; in the next second, he was gone.

Kenshin came back up the corridor, looking frustrated. "There's nothing down that way except storage units, I'm going to try the left-" He paused. "What's wrong?"

"Oh!" Tsubame burst out, "There was-"

"Nothing," Tomoe said firmly.

The droid looked at her in surprise.

"Nothing's wrong. But Tsubame and I will go with you this time, Kenshin."

"I just want to check it out quickly. If we all go together, and it turns out to be wrong and we have to backtrack, it will really slow us-"

"_We are going with you_."

"Oh. Um, all right."

They found Chancellor Shishio - or rather, Emperor Shishio - before they found Yukishiro. The man was waiting for them at the far end of a wide platform that hung out over a river of lava, about which mining droids were obliviously going about their work. Kenshin took a deep breath to steady himself. He had never won a fight against Shishio, this could so easily end in disaster...

"Stay here," he murmured to his wife. Then he headed out with measured steps to meet his opponent.

0-0-0-0-0

Enishi was, for the first time since he could remember, terrified. The man chasing him with a total monster - tireless, relentless, scarily strong. Yeah, that had probably been a really bad idea to blow up the guy's ship.

The new dark lord rushed through room after room, trying everything he could think of to hinder his pursuer. He used the Force to slam doors shut behind him, used the Force to yank random stuff off the walls and fling them, even gave up on the Force and just waved his lightsaber wildly behind his back, but it was no use. By the time he reached the platform where he could sense his master was, he was desperate.

"Shishio! Shishio the guy's crazy he's gonna kill me-"

Enishi slammed to a halt. He did not even register the tittering golden droid beside him; his eyes were fixed on the sight of his sister, lying very still in a pool of blood at her husband's feet, as he stood over her with a dripping sword.

0-0-0-0-0

"That's _cheating_," Kenshin growled, fighting for breath, his own words feeling stillborn as he moved his mouth to form them. At the height of their furious battle, just when Kenshin thought that he might be gaining the upper hand for once, a Binding Bomb detonated practically in his face, and now the poisonous gas had rendered Kenshin temporarily blind and deaf. Now he had to rely almost entirely on the Force.

If Shishio made a reply, Kenshin obviously could not hear it, so he began to expand his focus, using the Force to paint a mental image of his surroundings rather than just using it intuitively to predict and dodge attacks. In this way he could sense Shishio's life force darting around him, could continue to block and counter, even tried a few attacks of his own, though they were more easily repulsed than before. _'This is not good,'_ he thought, _'but I might still be able to make it...'_

Shishio's blade came crashing down at an odd angle, forcing Kenshin to catch it too low. He was so busy holding off the other saber and trying to figure out what had happened that he did not realize Shishio's intention until it was too late. With a vicious twisting jerk, the red lightsaber closed the last small gap and crashed down on the handle of Kenshin's own saber. He yelped as he felt it sparking and shuddering in his hand, and promptly dropped it. He sensed it hitting the ground in more than one piece.

_'Never mind, I'm screwed.'_

He backed away warily, now entirely defenseless and very conscious of his enemy's blade creeping slowly toward him, taunting him. He could practically feel the vibrations of Shishio's triumphant laughter.

"Tomoe!" Kenshin shouted. "Run!"

He sensed her moving rapidly toward him.

"RUN THE _OTHER_ WAY!" Kenshin screamed.

He felt her practically collide with his back; something heavy and cold touched his hand briefly before crashing to the floor - he felt the impact through his feet. Shishio's lightsaber flashed. Kenshin instinctively knocked her away and grunted as the blade embedded itself in his prosthetic bicep. This stupid arm was getting annoyingly expensive to keep fixing, though he had to admit that there were advantages in having a part of his body that could so easily get repaired as good as new, unlike the rest of him.

Then he gasped. Shishio had abandoned his lightsaber, which automatically powered off as it dropped to the floor, and was now drawing his steel sword. "Tomoe, _run_!"

She was moving behind him. Again he felt something touch his hand, and realized that she was trying to give him something. He seized it - a sword handle. _He had a weapon now._

Roaring, Kenshin instinctively flipped the sheath to a proper position at his waist, grasped the hilt, and drew it as swiftly as he could - but there was something wrong. He was not used to such a heavy weapon, for one thing, and the balance seemed to be significantly off, this thing was too unwieldy to get used to in such pressing circumstances, he was not going to be able to-

It was knocked from his hands. Kenshin screamed and stumbled backward as what felt like a whip of fire slashed across his chest, continuing to burn him even after it had stopped touching his flesh. His hands groped wildly, until he pulled his mind together and remembered that he could call his weapon back into his grip with the Force. He zeroed in on his sword, yanked it toward him, but then was forced to raise his prosthetic arm to protect his face as Shishio's burning blade came slashing at him again. The impact jarred through him.

Something else hit him, too. The sword he had called but had not been ready to catch crashed straight into him, just at the moment when his balance was already strained from blocking, which threw him to the ground. He scrambled, trying to get to his feet. Dimly he sensed Tomoe again, moving in front of him- "Tomoe, no!"

He sensed the sudden spike in her thoughts, realized what had happened. "NO!" He raised his arms just in time to catch her warm body as she collapsed against him. "Tomoe? _Tomoe!_" He felt hot liquid leaking onto him, put his hand on her and found where it was coming from, frantically pressed his palm against the long cut in her torso, trying to stop the blood from flowing relentlessly out of it. "_NO!_"

She was still shifting a little. The sword she had tried to give him shifted, too. Perhaps she was trying to pick it up.

Seizing it from her, Kenshin shot to his feet and forward at his opponent, shouting at the top of his lungs. He sensed the swing of Shishio's blade, caught it deftly, performed a vicious twist of his own and managed to Force-yank the weapon out of Shishio's hand in the moment when his grip had loosened a little. He meant to catch the sword as it came flying toward him, but instead he had to dodge both it and the lightsaber that Shishio had instantly whipped out upon losing his other weapon.

Steel was no match for light. Kenshin darted away, racing in the direction he had sensed Shishio's sword fall. He had to sharpen his focus a little to find it, but there it was; he snatched it up and backed away, thinking furiously about how he could counter a lightsaber with swords that were too old fashioned to compete, even if he did have two of them now. They weighed heavily in his hands, so that he could tell now that they were different from each other. There was something odd about the sword Tomoe had given him, and if he had a chance to evaluate he might be able to figure it out, but at the moment, there was no time.

_'How did Shishio make this thing burn?'_ he thought. _'What could he have used to ignite it...?'_ That's when he was suddenly able to identify the burning stench that had been coming from Shishio's weapon. _'This smell. It's human flesh. Somehow this sword of his is full of human tissue, that's what he used to ignite it with.'_ The thought made him want to gag.

Shishio was coming for him again, the lightsaber was flashing. Kenshin managed to keep dancing out of the way, desperate to find a way to counter. _'If only I could get that saber out of his hands, or at least get one of my own!'_

He had come full circle. He was now poised beside a heap on the floor, and he kind of knew what it was but did not want to believe what his senses were telling him at first. Then his brain registered and he realized, _'It's still Tomoe, it's Tomoe, except it's not her anymore because this thing isn't alive and she _has_ to be alive, where's her life, all this flesh and no life in it, that can't be right, it can't...!'_

Something crashed into him, he had no idea what it was. He went flying, both weapons torn from his grip. He landed painfully against the barricade at the edge of the platform. He sensed Shishio nearby, rapidly approaching, and instinctively swung out with his arm and all the strength of his grief, felt an impact.

Shishio's trajectory was altered. Impossibly, he shot straight past the barricade - or yet maybe not so impossible, because he was no longer moving out. Kenshin sensed him dropping now, realized that his enemy must have been knocked too high and tumbled over the edge. Now he was falling, and Kenshin had no desire to think about him anymore.

0-0-0-0-0

Enishi's mind was consumed with rage. Without even thinking, he raised both hands and blasted his power out as hard as he could. Both the murdering Jedi and the emperor farther out were caught up in the Force. They went flying toward the edge of the platform, though Enishi did not bother to watch to see where they landed. Instead, he ran to his sister, kneeling beside her and gently taking hold of her shoulders, forcing himself not to shake her. _'It'll make it worse,'_ he told himself fiercely. _'Don't hurt her, don't be rough with her, don't make it worse.'_

"Neesan," he called instead. "_Neesan_! Can you hear me? Open your eyes!"

She was not listening to him. She was not even moving. Her beautiful face...there was a cut on the left side of her face now, intersecting her old scar to form a cross shape. Blood had trickled down from it and stained her collar. "NEESAN!" This time he did shake her, though he forced himself to stop immediately. "Neesan, _wake up_!" The fabric of his clothes were soaked from the knee down. Every step he took now would be like wading through his sister's blood. "Don't do this to me!"

She was dead.

Enishi stared at her, aghast.

She was dead. He could not deny it anymore, not when her eyes were so blank, not when he failed to sense even the merest spark of life in her body. "_Neesan_!" He broke into wild sobs, clutching her close. She was dead, she had been run through with a blade, and...and the one who had done it was...

Enishi raised his head, his eyes blazing. He could see Kenshin now, struggling at the edge of the platform, stained with Tomoe's blood. Shishio seemed to have disappeared. Enishi lowered his sister gently, got to his feet, drew his weapon. Kenshin was going to die, too.

"Don't even think about it." The huge man in the white cloak was behind him, a note of warning in his tone.

Enishi was not afraid of him anymore. Ignoring him completely, the young Sith stalked forward, intent on his prey.

"I _know_ you heard me." Hiko stepped forward and backhanded him; Enishi went flying to the side, his lightsaber clattering out of his grip. Growling, the young man called it back to his hand and ignited it, scrambling to his feet and staring at Hiko with a murderous expression.

Without even looking, Hiko smashed his sheath into Enishi's head as he passed, sending the young man crumpling unconscious to the ground.

Kenshin was just staggering back to his feet as Hiko got to him. He took a couple of blind, pathetic steps before Hiko impatiently seized him and tossed him over his shoulder. Then Hiko turned back to Tomoe, gathering her up more gently in his other arm as Tsubame, whirring loudly in distress, shuffled past him as fast as its clunky metal legs could carry it, apparently intending to retrieve the sakabatou.

"Don't dawdle, droid," Hiko called. "I won't be waiting long for you."

"Yes, sir, I'll be along in just a moment..."

0-0-0-0-0

When Enishi awakened, he was alone. Groaning, he pulled himself laboriously to his hands and knees before he remembered what had happened. Then he collapsed again and just cried, for a very long time.

Eventually, the sound of agonized groans began to break through his consciousness. Enishi looked up blearily, then pulled himself to the edge of the platform, where he saw a group of mining droids gathered curiously around what looked like a writhing, human-sized chunk of charcoal. He stared listlessly down at the thing for a long time before he finally recognized it. "Oh, look. It's Shishio."

"Enishi!" The rasping, tortured voice was still strong. "Enishi, you worthless piece of poodoo, are you still there?"

"My sister's dead," Enishi said dully.

Shishio used some incredibly crude language on both her and Enishi. "Get me out of here! I need to get back home!"

"I don't really care," Enishi told him.

A squealing droid came flying at his face. Enishi dodged automatically, then cursed himself. He should have just sat still and let it hit him. If he had angled himself right, the tool in its grip would have impaled him.

"You WILL care once I get my hands on you!" There was a sudden pause. "Enishi, don't you still have something to live for?"

"No."

"Not even revenge?"

Something sparked in Enishi's eyes. "Revenge..."

"On Kenshin. On Himura Kenshin, that miserable failed excuse for a Jedi who took away everything you ever loved."

"You'll help me kill him?" Enishi whispered.

"Absolutely - if you GET ME OUT OF HERE."

Enishi wasted no more time.

0-0-0-0-0

Hiko swore. The ship that Kenshin had traveled to Mustafar in, despite being in the best shape of the three, was still too damaged to get off the ground. Using such strong language that Tsubame finally shut its audio circuits off in self-defense, Hiko dragged Kenshin's barely conscious body and Tomoe's dead one back off the ship, barking at poor Tsubame to keep up as he strode along, searching for another vehicle. "This is ridiculous, we can't have come so far and done all this just to get stuck on this hellhole..."

In the room where the Separatist leaders had died, Hiko stopped. Several masked figures were wandering around, poking at the bodies in confusion. Upon seeing him, the men leaped back with drawn weapons.

"Who are you?" the one who seemed to be in charge demanded warily.

"What are ninja doing on Mustafar?" Hiko asked.

"None of your business."

Hiko rolled his eyes. "Go ahead and tell whoever hired you that you got the job done, you can collect your money. Kenshin won't care."

"How dare you accuse the Oniwabanshuu of such a dishonorable practice?" the head ninja growled.

"Whatever. Hey, I need a lift to Tattooine."

The ninja regarded him. "And you expect us to help you out of the goodness of our hearts?"

Hiko sighed. "What's the fee? And before you ask, all I have is Tattooine currency, Republican credits are useless out there."

The ninja's eyes, which were the only visible part of his face, gleamed calculatingly. "We'll take the droid as payment."

"Me?" Tsubame squeaked.

"Done."

"Master Hiko!" it cried in distress. "I - I belong to Master Kenshin, only he can sell me."

Hiko turned on it. "I'm carrying a dead body here. Shut up."

The droid was trembling. It clanked a few steps forward, holding up the sakabatou in desperation. "Then, will you please take this? Tomoe-san entrusted it to my care before she expired, and I...I don't want to fail her."

Hiko sighed, softening a little. "Very well, I'll keep it safe." He paused. "Sorry, Tsubame."

The droid bowed its head in submission.

0-0-0-0-0

Emperor Shishio, having been healed as much as possible by the state-of-the-art med droids back on Coruscant (though he still looked like a piece of overcooked meat), was now modeling Evil Overlord outfits for Darth Enishi.

"Seems over-the-top to me," Shishio commented critically, his voice boomingly distorted through the black mask. The entire outfit was black, actually. Experimentally, he tapped the bottom of one black boot against the floor and turned to see how the long black cape swirled.

"Yeah, it's tacky," Enishi agreed, "though I kind of like the mask. For me, I mean." He caught it as Shishio tossed it to him, then tried it on himself. He giggled, then laughed some more at the way the mask altered the sound.

"How about this one?" Shishio, now wrapped head to foot in bandages, surveyed himself critically in a mirror.

Enishi snorted. "You look like a mummy."

Shishio picked up a loose, scratchy dark robe and draped it carelessly around his body. He regarded his reflection again, then nodded.

"Now you look like a mummy trying to cosplay."

"I like it," Shishio said decisively. "It gives the manly impression of showing off my battle scars, persevering through agonizing wounds, and still looking sexy while I'm at it."

"Don't know where you get your delusions, Mummy-brain," Enishi muttered. He hopped off the couch and sauntered off.

0-0-0-0-0

Learning of Oibore's farm before parting with Tsubame, Hiko traveled there with his burdens, though once he saw the old man's grief at the death of his daughter, Hiko did not have the stomach to stay long. Taking one last long look at Kenshin, who was slumped in the house's entrance hall, Hiko sighed, touched the sakabatou at his belt, then turned and vanished into the sandy wastes.

Days passed. Tomoe was buried next to her adopted sisters, and her surviving family tried to live without her. Oibore often stopped to weep as he went slowly about his work; Kenshin spent his time either sitting by his dead loved ones or in the mech workroom whenever the heat became too much even for his grief.

The Force was dead to him. He had been unable to sense it at all ever since that battle. He did not even care. He did not want to ever touch a lightsaber again, and he would die before he ever let his hands take another human life.

So many had died...not just the Jedi and the Separatists. He knew now what had happened to all those people he had supposedly arrested. Killed, all of them. Anyone who had spoken up against Shishio's slow takeover, anyone devoted to preserving the power of the Senate...dead, because of Kenshin. Because he had been so blind to the truth. "Never again," he whispered.

He did not speak to his father-in-law very often, merely because the idea never occurred to him. One night, however, he gradually came to realize that the old man was sitting beside him, chatting away with tears in his eyes. It occurred to Kenshin that Oibore was lonely, that he needed comfort as well, that responding to his conversation might help take off some of the edge of the old man's grief.

"Yukishiro always was such a feisty kid," Oibore was saying wistfully when Kenshin finally tuned in. "A brat, sometimes...heh, I'll admit that without a qualm...but that boy, he really had a soft spot for his big sister." Oibore blew his nose on a filthy handkerchief and went on in an increasingly quavering voice. "I missed 'em so much, both of 'em..."

"Uncle," Kenshin said slowly. It was difficult calling the man 'Father' now - Oibore was Tomoe's father, not Kenshin's. Even the slightest reference to her hurt too much. "Uncle, you used to live on Naboo, didn't you?"

Oibore nodded eagerly, looking pleased that Kenshin was finally talking to him instead of acting like a zombie. "That's right, that's right, my boy. I was a king once." He laughed loudly. "Can ya imagine that? Me, this stinking, filthy, rickety old bag of bones, a king!"

"How in the worlds did you end up here?" Kenshin said helplessly.

"Ah, you know. Loved my kids too much." The old man sniffed. "Couldn't stand seein' Yuki get in trouble, couldn't take the thought of 'em locking him up, maybe killing 'im..."

Kenshin felt a twinge of alarm. "What do you mean?"

Oibore nudged him amiably. "Ah, you know, don't ya? You're a Jedi. My kid was, too," he said proudly. "'Least, he coulda been. When he was a baby he'd be floatin' toys around, that kind of thing. Got him in trouble, though...Yuki always did have a temper, the little monster..." Oibore blew his nose again. "Kids don't always think," he said regretfully. "Smart things, kids are; sometimes they're dumb, too...don't realize that a life's a life, don't realize that they hurt people when they're angry."

"Did Yukishiro...hurt someone, when he was a child?" Kenshin said thoughtfully.

Oibore turned sad eyes to him, face sagging. "Poor kid," he said. "Killed that poor kid. My own boy, sittin' there staring at that poor kid, couldn't believe what he'd done..." Oibore began to cry. "I couldn't stand the thought of them killing my kid too, you know? I know I shouldn'ta done it, shouldn't've taken the blame for 'im, but I couldn't...I couldn't bear the thought of..."

Kenshin could not even bring himself to be angry. He had made enough terrible mistakes in his life, he had no right to judge. "I think I am very well suited to live here," he whispered. "Uncle, let me stay with you. I can help you on the farm. Neither of us will have to bother anyone else again."

Oibore patted his hand. "Fine plan you have there, son, fine plan. We'll make it together, you and I, eh?"

0-0-0

_There was no living with what these hands had done. To seek death seemed cowardly; yet to hide was also cowardly, and it was what this one did for years. Until you, Kaoru-hime. You called this one out of exile, to face the consequences of his crimes, and to atone as he should have done long ago._

_To be concluded..._

Author's Notes: This was the chapter that gave me _so much trouble_ for so long, holding up the entire fic. As I've mentioned before, it was really only one scene that was gumming up the works, around the time when Enishi and Kenshin are attacking the Jedi temple. Enishi, getting too enthusiastic, turned around and went for Shishio's throat, and it wasn't until much, much later that I realized he needed to be swearing allegiance to Shishio instead. *sweatdrop* However, I did not know that at the time, not until I'd gone through the whole fic fixing mistakes.

A few other things were revised in order to make the story work better. I wrote in the character of I'izuka, who turned out to only play a minor role, but he did help a little. Also, I added some "assassination" scenes for Kenshin, which helped a lot. The most important revision was to do a better job of expanding and developing Enishi's character, which really helped with story flow. Originally, Enishi was just playing the Jar Jar Binks figure, and Jar Jar's role in the movie is tiny; but then right before the attack on the temple, he suddenly shoved his way onscreen and got really important, so I tried to give that better continuity.


	14. Bye Bye, Death Star Take 2

_RuroKen Star Wars_, a Rurouni Kenshin / Star Wars crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Episode XIV - Bye Bye, Death Star (Take 2)

**(ROUGH DRAFT)**

When Kenshin had finished speaking, there was a very long silence. He and Kaoru stood side by side, not touching, afraid to look at each other. The first to speak was not either of them, and they glanced up, startled.

"Wow. That's some story."

"Sanosuke!" Kaoru burst out, her face heating. "Megumi-san, Yahiko, Tsubame-chan...what are you doing here?"

"You can't expect to sneak off and spin some long angsty story without us looking for you two," Yahiko pointed out. "Geez, Kenshin...killing people, working for the emperor..." It was hard to tell whether or not the hollowness of its laugh came simply from its mechanical nature. "We _are_ on the same side, right?"

"I'll take you apart!" Kaoru shouted with sudden surprising vehemence, rushing at the droid. She was brought up short by Kenshin's hand on her arm, and both of them froze.

"I...I'm sorry," Yahiko muttered, eyes growing dim. "It was just a joke."

"You're ours now, Kenshin," Sanosuke said forcefully. "We don't care who you used to be or what you did in the past. You're fighting with _us_ now."

"Thank you, Sano," Kenshin whispered.

"Ken-san," Megumi said uncomfortably. "You're leaving to fight on your own, aren't you." At his nod, she stepped forward and reached into her sleeve for something, drawing it out to offer to him. "Please take this," she murmured.

Kenshin stared at the compact case she handed him, with a compartment on one side containing a healing salve, and the other hiding micro-instruments for mechanical repair work.

"In case something happens to your prosthetic again," she said awkwardly.

"Thank you, Megumi-dono."

She nodded and stepped back. Sanosuke rubbed at the back of his head. "Well...good luck, Kenshin. May the Force be with you, or whatever it is you need to hear."

Kenshin nodded. "You too, Sano." The others finished their farewells and quietly filed back inside, leaving Kenshin and Kaoru alone. Realizing belatedly that he was still holding onto her, he tried to withdraw his hand, but she grabbed it and pressed it to her lips, leaning back against him. He felt her tears leaking down into his palm. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

At last she turned around and kissed him, and they held each other for a long time.

"I don't know what to think," she finally whispered. "It's all so fast, and now you're leaving..." Her fingers suddenly dug into him. "Take me with you," she whispered.

"This one...can't."

At last their eyes met, filled with love and pain. There was nothing more to say. They had said everything they could with their words; it was only their hearts that could still speak, would speak together forever. At last he raised her palm to his lips and kissed it gently. Then, reluctantly, inevitably, he turned and walked away. She reached after him, but her hands closed on nothing but air. When he was gone, she slipped to her knees, buried her face in her hands and sobbed. "Kenshin..._Kenshin_..."

0-0-0-0-0

Darth Enishi burst through a doorway and halted in delight, pointing a finger at the red-haired prisoner standing calmly between two stormtroopers. "You came! _You actually came!_ You're as stupid as Shishio said you would be! By the way, you look really good in handcuffs."

"Thanks," Kenshin said coldly. "Now, will you let this one sic Tomoe's holo-diary on you, or do you insist on fighting first?"

"Neither," Enishi said, gleefully brandishing the sakabatou when it was handed to him by a nervous stormtrooper. "You think I'm gonna let you out of those cuffs now that you're in them? I'm gonna torture you to death, you *insert R-rated swear words*! I'm gonna pull out every strand of your hair one by one! I'm gonna poke out your pretty eyes and slash up the _other_ side of your face! I'm gonna-!"

"Can't you at least come up with something that doesn't sound so obsessed this one's looks?" Kenshin said in exasperation. "You sound like a fangirl, that you do."

Enishi blinked. "Fine. Then I'll *insert R-rated scenarios of intense gruesome violence*. Neesan will be happy then!"

"No, she won't," Kenshin said shortly. "Your sister never desired this one's death." His voice trailed into a whisper. "Never, not even when he had become a monster."

"Shut up!" Enishi screamed, and hit him so that the scars on his face started bleeding. "You stole Neesan's love, and then you betrayed her and everything she believed in, and then you _killed_ her! Death is too good for you!"

"I agree."

Surprised, both men turned to find the emperor and his lover approaching. "Look," Yumi announced smugly, indicating her chest, which was difficult to see through the hovering smudge of large pixels. "My bosom is _not_ showing this time."

"Um...it kind of is...you're just cheating," Kenshin said dubiously, but was overridden by Enishi's whine. "Aw, man. I wanted to gawk at them again."

"The next time you do, I'll run you through," Shishio said casually. "Now, Battousai. As you might have noticed, I have you in my clutches."

"What? He's in _my_ clutches, jerk!" Enishi yelled. "You keep your hands off my victim! I'm going to beat him senseless with his own backwards sword, then I'm going to drag him off to a waking nightmare, and _you're_ not allowed to butt in!"

Shishio held up a finger in a 'wait' gesture so he could order the stormtroopers to go out and slaughter the Meiji strike team.

"No!" Kenshin burst out. "That will _not_ be allowed!" He took a furious step, and was suddenly swept into the wall by an invisible force. Stunned, he fought to regain his wits and get back to his feet, as Shishio and Enishi continued to argue about him.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I have my own plans for him?"

"Your plans can *insert R-rated swear words of intense gruesome violence*. Battousai is _mine_."

"Who's the emperor here, me or you?"

"Emperor, shmemperor. Go hide in your stinky bath, you walking piece of barbeque!"

"Are you aware that I'm planning to kill you in a few hours, whether I am able to take Battousai on as my apprentice or not?"

"_You_? Kill _me_? Don't make me laugh!"

"Laugh if you wish, you'll still be dead by morning."

"When I finish wreaking my revenge on Battousai, you'll be next, you bossy mummy wannabe!"

"Where did you learn your taunts, on an elementary school playground?"

"Shut up! Didn't you hear my R-rated-"

Both men paused, then turned to look at Kenshin, who was posed with a look of great concentration. "And just what are you doing?" Shishio inquired conversationally.

"Uh...attempting to levitate something to hit you on the head," Kenshin admitted.

"It's not working," Enishi pointed out.

"...Yes, thank you, I can see that."

"Want me to go torture your girlfriend again?" Enishi offered sweetly.

"No," Kenshin said coldly, his eyes blazing gold.

"By the way, where'd you get a new backwards sword from?" Enishi suddenly wondered. "Your old one got dumped out of Cloud City, and you can't find a weapon this stupid even on eBay."

"Is that really important right now?" Kenshin said in exasperation.

"No," Shishio put in. "What's important is your fate, Battousai. You seem very convinced that you will never again fall under the influence of the Dark Side."

Kenshin gazed at him steadily. "Promises were made. The past will not be repeated."

"Hey," Enishi suddenly said, "aren't we supposed to be having this conversation on the Death Star?"

Shishio rolled his eyes. "Does it matter?"

"The Death Star is _cool_," Enishi declared firmly. "This place is _not_. It doesn't even have any windows. How are we supposed to watch Meiji get blown up?"

"The Alliance will not be defeated," Kenshin said with equal firmness, but was neither surprised nor offended when they ignored him. Their supreme self-confidence could very well prove to be a useful weakness.

0-0-0-0-0

In outer space, Aoshi deftly worked the controls of the _Sagara Falcon_ and tried to pretend that Misao was not occupying the seat next to him. It was quite difficult, if not impossible, since she was laughing and chattering like a child.

"I _love_ going into hyperspace, all the stars look amazing and the speed is like magic! Aoshi-sama, I made a bet with Beshimi that we'll take out more Star Destroyers than _he_ can. We'll win, right?"

"Buckle your seat belt," he snapped, and launched them into hyperspace, with the rest of the Oniwabanshuu and Meiji spacecraft keeping pace. _'Sagara, Takani, Kamiya...you _will_ have the shield down in time. If I lose any of my men to your incompetence, I will not forgive you.'_

0-0-0-0-0

So far, the Sagara group was doing well, thanks to their Ewok allies. They broke into the bunker easily and moved to set up explosives, completely unaware that they had just walked into a trap.

0-0-0-0-0

"There. Are you happy now?" Shishio snapped. He spread his arm sarcastically as if encompassing the battle station. "We're here on the Death Star."

"Come look out the windows!" Enishi dragged Kenshin with him over to the excellent view of space. "Isn't it beautiful?" Enishi sighed happily.

"Yes," Kenshin agreed warily, and glanced down at the hand Enishi was using to grip his arm with excessive force.

"It will be even _more_ beautiful," Enishi continued dreamily, "when I toss your corpse out there and watch all the moisture get sucked out of it."

"...You're kind of sick, that you are."

"Well," Enishi said in a very reasonable tone of voice, "if I am, it _is_ your fault," and with that he smashed Kenshin's head against the window.

Kenshin reeled back, blood trickling from his forehead, cursing silently. "Take these off," he demanded, holding up his still bound wrists. "And give this one his sword back so we can fight."

"You haven't - been - LISTENING TO ME!" Enishi screamed, and dove at him. Kenshin whirled aside as Shishio watched impassively, Yumi anxiously. "I want you to die a HORRIBLE DEATH! I don't _care_ about fighting you! I want you to SUFFER!"

"It hasn't been enough?" Kenshin said quietly, keeping a wary eye on his enemies. "All these years of suffering haven't been enough? These hands are still stained with blood. The lives taken still cry out for vengeance. Their screams echo in these ears every hour of every day...is it truly not enough?"

Enishi stabbed his finger viciously at the window, at Endor glowing low in one corner. "Your friends are going to die," he said in a voice hot with hatred. "_All_ of them will die. We set a trap for them, and they fell for it like the idiots they are." He laughed wildly. "Don't you get it? This battle station isn't still under construction - it's _fully armed and operational_. The second we give the word, the crater cannon heats up and boom! There go your cute little Alliance ships, and Endor, and all your stupid little friends with them!"

The blood had drained from Kenshin's face. "No...no."

"Enishi," Shishio said, "will you stop stealing my lines? And you're going out of order, you haven't even uncuffed him yet."

"NO!" Kenshin shouted, and smashed the bindings to shards. "It won't be allowed! It will _not_!"

"Shut up, no one wants to listen to you. Geez, I keep talking about hurting you, and I still haven't done a thing. Here, Shishio, give him his backwards sword. Maybe if we fight I can finally get some blood out of him."

"Not all of it, Enishi. I need my new apprentice to still be functional," Shishio said, tossing the sakabatou at the enraged Kenshin.

"You're not listening to me either!" Enishi said furiously. "After I've gotten Battousai quiet, I'll skewer you and shut you up so I can get on with my revenge!"

"Yumi," Shishio sighed, "how did I manage to put up with this for so long?"

0-0-0-0-0

On Endor, Sanosuke, Kaoru, and the rest discovered that the emperor and the dark lord had not been lying. Things had gone well for about ten seconds, until imperial backup troops had come pouring in and forced them to surrender.

Sanosuke swore as he stepped protectively in front of Megumi. "Makes my skin crawl..."

"What does?" Megumi said tightly, her eyes on the enemy weapons.

"The look on Shinomori's face when he finds out he's gotta take on a fully-shielded Death Star after all, with that weasel chick in tow."

"Why are you talking about weasels?" Kaoru hissed out of the corner of her mouth. "We're kind of in trouble here!"

"Maybe the creepy little teddy bears can help us," Sanosuke said snidely. A few minutes later, his mouth dropped open when he realized the despairingly sarcastically statement had, incredibly, turned out to be prophetic.

0-0-0-0-0

"...Curse you, Sagara," Aoshi murmured. He had just come out of lightspeed.

"Uh...Aoshi-sama, I think they're..._jamming_ us," Misao said in disbelief. "I can't get a reading on the shield. They can't have known we were coming, could they?"

"Brace yourself, Misao. Looks like we'll be fighting full-throttle for a while after all."

"Yay!" Misao cheered enthusiastically, "Bring 'em on!"

She did not hear Aoshi adding under his breath, as they prepared to deal with the enemy fighters that came swarming out at them, "If I get out of this alive, I'll have your head, Sagara."

0-0-0-0-0

Kenshin was fighting like a madman, spurred on by the occasional glimpses he caught out of the corner of his eye - of the space battle between the Meiji fleet and the imperial warships that had seemed to come out of nowhere. Unfortunately for him, fighting like a madman was exactly what Shishio wanted.

"Excellent," he said approvingly as Kenshin got in a vicious hit that sent Enishi crashing clear across the room. "You're actually back up to your previous standards. With a bit more training, I think I can make you quite useful."

Kenshin, breathing hard, was not looking at Shishio, but the emperor's words were ringing in his ears. Something was...wrong...

He shivered when he seemed to feel a tremor in his soul. He had forgotten for a moment that Shishio was not just a cruel dictator and a deadly warrior, but a master of the Dark Side of the Force. The black power was all too familiar to Kenshin, and it sang silently to him now, beckoning, slowly re-awakening after all this time. _'Why?'_ he thought wildly. _'This one cannot fight under the influence of the Dark Side...Enishi would be vanquished, but only at the cost of this one falling into Shishio's power. What-'_ Anger. Fear. Hate. Suffering.

Guilt.

Kenshin nearly retched when he realized that he had been playing right into Shishio's hands. To so carelessly let negative emotion flow through him in the presence of a Sith master, especially one who knew him well, had once commanded him, and sought to bind him into service again - that was just _stupid_.

_'You must keep your focus,'_ Kenshin told himself firmly. _'You are not here to avenge, or to kill. You are here to _stop_ evil, not fall under its sway.'_ He had to concentrate on life, on light...so he thought of Kaoru.

At once, as her face came into his mind, smiling shyly, laughing passionately, gazing encouragingly at him, the darkness was swept away and Kenshin felt calm again. It was only as the burning sensation faded from his eyes that he realized they must have turned gold, and were returning to blue. _'Do not make such a mistake again,'_ he told himself, and nodded. _'You are a swordsman now. Not a Jedi, not a killer. You fight to protect, and their love and trust will give you strength.'_

"Enough with the 3v1l shoujo bubbles!" Enishi growled, hacking through them furiously.

Kenshin blinked, startled. He spared the corner of an eye to glance at Shishio, who looked angry. _'Good,'_ Kenshin thought in satisfaction.

0-0-0-0-0

The Meiji rebels were marched out of the Endor bunker in a sullen mass, eyeing the legions of stormtroopers that had sprung up in their brief absence. Before there was time to get too discouraged, however, Yahiko's golden form emerged from the foliage on a nearby hill. "Look at me, you stupid losers!" it called. "I'm doing something useful for once!"

As startled stormtroopers moved to grab him, chaos erupted. Ewoks came popping out of the ferns, swinging in from the trees, shouting war cries in their squeaky voices and clobbering the stormtroopers for all they were worth. Sanosuke was the first rebel to snap out of his amazement and swing a fist at the nearest guard; Megumi and Kaoru were right behind him. As the battle spread out into the trees, the three of them raced for the bunker, too late to get inside before the doors closed but desperate to find a way in.

"Okay, I've got an idea," Kaoru said hurriedly. "We'll call Yahiko or Tsubame-chan, get them down here to break the code on the lock-"

"Or I could use the Futae no Kiwami and bust my way in," Sanosuke suggested with a grin.

"Oh." Kaoru paused, then kicked him good-naturedly. "Go for it, show off."

"Don't mind if I do, Your Highnessness." Sanosuke bowed playfully, then turned to the door and let loose with a deadly fist.

The women dodged flying bits of metal, then grinned when Sanosuke indicated the smashed opening with a flourish. "That's my boy," Megumi murmured, and slipped him a quick kiss as they hurried inside.

0-0-0-0-0

Out in space, Aoshi noticed that despite the fury of the battle, one area was ominously quiet.

"Why are the Star Destroyer slugs just sitting there?" Misao wanted to know.

"Think about it."

"That's what I was afraid of," she said with a little shiver, her suspicions confirmed. She was just reaching for the commlink switch when a blast came from the Death Star's main cannon, causing one of the rebel cruisers to explode.

As she was still staring at the window, Aoshi's large, warm hand came over her own frozen fingers and opened the line. "Admiral," he said calmly, "the idiots have failed. I suggest a retreat."

_"We won't get another chance at this,"_ the admiral's frustrated voice came over the commlink. _"The odds are slim, but any future plan will be even more risky-"_

"I didn't say we should abandon the mission," Aoshi said clearly. "I suggested a retreat - of the Meiji ships. The Oniwabanshuu will take care of the rest."

_"What?"_ came the sharp voice over the commlink.

Aoshi's eyes had flicked to Misao, who was staring at him. "Aoshi-sama?"

"You're getting off first, Misao," he said quietly. "Get to an escape pod, now."

"No!" She launched herself at him and dug her nails angrily into his shirt. "I'm _not_ leaving you, Aoshi-sama."

"You will if I knock you over the head and shove your mule-headed, unconscious body into the escape pod."

"Then I'll come back and follow you again!" she screamed. "Wherever you plan to go, one way or another, _I'll follow you_!"

Aoshi felt cold as he looked into her furious, swimming eyes, and knew that she would do as she said. His arms were tightly around her before he realized he had moved. "Please," he whispered, wondering why the scent of her hair was taking up so much of his attention when they were in the thick of battle.

"Aoshi-sama," she mumbled into his neck, unable to move because of his embrace, not wanting to. "I'd do...almost anything for you. But I won't leave you." She blinked when she heard him curse her, but in the next instant he was kissing her. When they broke apart she stared at him, her breath gone. "A...Aoshi-sama?"

"We're both going to die," he said calmly, his gaze intense. It was his last warning, and they both knew it.

After a moment, Misao smiled, reaching up to touch her pulsing lips. "Then we'll take the emperor with us, ne?"

"You're infuriating," he told her lovingly, then pushed her back into her seat. Now that that was settled, they both had work to do.

0-0-0-0-0

"W00t!" Sanosuke cheered along with the rebels and the Ewoks as they watched the Death Star's shield generator explode. "Take that, Shinomori!"

0-0-0-0-0

Up in space, Aoshi glanced away from the sight of a slowly-exploding star destroyer and then stared in astonishment at the sudden information that flashed across his readout. "The shield is down? How can that be? That rooster-head can't have..."

"Hey, hey, never mind!" Misao was yelling excitedly into the commlinks at the retreating Alliance ships. "I take it back, we're not changing the plans after all! Let's go, prepare for mega Death Star detonation!"

"Unbelievable," Aoshi was muttering in disappointment. "First Battousai proves himself stronger than my men, then the rooster-head steals our glory..."

"At least I'll be safe now, right?" Misao said with a wink.

"Well," he acknowledged with a small smile, "there is that."

0-0-0-0-0

"What's wrong, Battousai?" Enishi taunted. "Your eyes are the wrong color again."

Kenshin calmly went on countering his opponent's strikes, saw an opening, and smashed the sakabatou into Enishi's flesh again. The dark lord was looking quite worse for wear by this time, but it seemed to have no effect on his morale. If anything, Enishi looked more furious and more impervious to pain than ever. His recovery time was almost non-existent, which meant no rest for Kenshin.

"Hm," Shishio murmured. "They've gotten too evenly matched. Battousai's somehow managed to achieve top-notch form and yet still maintain perfect control over his emotions; yet the brat has so transcended his body that unless this drags on too long, he'll be unbeatable-"

Kenshin, in a flurry of strikes, unexpectedly flipped his blade and chopped off Enishi's hand. He stood glaring, poised to counter any retaliation, but Enishi was just standing there, staring at the bleeding stump of his arm, seeming unaware that his weapon had gone bouncing down into the enormous shaft beside them, lost forever.

"Never mind." Shishio shrugged.

"Enishi," Kenshin said coldly. "Tomoe put herself in danger for this one's sake, but in the end, it was not these hands that killed your sister. That was the work of your master."

Enishi turned his dazed stare onto Kenshin. His lips moved, but made no sound.

"_More_ talking?" Shishio came striding impatiently toward them. "This is really getting on my nerves. I _was_ waiting for one of you to get rid of the other for me, but it looks like I'll have to take care of both of you myself. As usual." Without any further warning, he did not draw his lightsaber. Instead, he raised his hands and shot a blast of dark lightning at Kenshin.

Kenshin, caught off-guard, was thrown to the ground and lost hold of his sword; he didn't even notice, because he was too busy screaming. When the torture was over, he lay limp and sobbing dryly, still in shock at the unexpectedness of it.

"I had been hoping to replace this obsessed whiner with you again, Battousai - but that upstart dragon has taught you too well. No matter how great your skill, you've become useless to me now. Pity." Without a trace of regret on his face, he raised his hands again and unleashed another wave of blinding power at his fallen nemesis.

Kenshin, trying feebly and unsuccessfully to reach his weapon, was caught in agony once again. As he writhed on the floor, almost too breathless from pain to scream, Enishi was blinking. "What...What did you say...Battousai...?"

He noticed for the first time that Kenshin was a bit preoccupied. "...Hey. Hey. You said- No, it can't be true. It was you, you killed her. You killed her!" There was no response. "Pay attention to me!" He glared at Shishio, whose face was twisted with some strong emotion, eyes gleaming, totally absorbed. "Oi, cut it out, I'm trying to talk to him!" He strode over, seized the emperor in his arms, and hauled him struggling over to the shaft, tossing him in. Yumi screamed and dashed to follow her master.

Wrinkling his nose in annoyance, Enishi absently cradled his injured arm and knelt down next to Kenshin, who was gasping on the floor. "Oi. What you said about my sister. It's a lie!"

Kenshin groaned, seriously not feeling up to this conversation at the moment. "En...Eni-shi...your sis-" He gasped and curled up, moaning, tears of pain standing in the corners of his eyes. It hurt so _bad_. The pain was fading, but slowly. "You can listen to her diary," he finally managed, "later. When we...get off the station." He drew in a deep, shaky breath and tried to sit up. He was surprised when Enishi helped him, though not very gently.

The other man's eyes were burning, fixed intently on his face. Kenshin took a deep breath to steady himself enough to finish. "This one fought with Shishio, and was wounded. Tomoe...tried to help, but he..." He squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed hard. "It was he who stabbed her. Not this one. It was this one's fault she came, this one's fault she suffered...but I would never have slain her. Never."

"I don't believe you," Enishi snapped. Then he burst into tears.

Kenshin patted him awkwardly on the back, glancing out at the space battle again. "Enishi, it is probably a good idea to get off this station, that it is."

"You're a liar!" Enishi sobbed, clinging to him as if for comfort. "Neesan...Neesan...!"

Kenshin sighed and pulled himself laboriously to his feet, somehow managing to help Enishi up too. Neither of them could quite stand without the aid of the other. As they trudged wearily out of the throne room together, trailing blood in their wake, Kenshin paused to pull the evacuation alert system on a control panel they passed. Then he pressed grimly on, knowing that they had to get of this station before it disappeared not just out of time, but out of space as well.

0-0-0-0-0

"Ooh, pretty! Look, Aoshi-sama, that must be it!" Misao burbled, pointing at the Death Star's impressive power generator as they soared into the heart of the battle station.

"Yes. Thank you for that much-needed identification," Aoshi said with a straight face. It was ridiculously easy to take out; just a couple of shots from the _Falcon_'s powerful cannons sent it toppling heavily from its support.

"Mission accomplished!" Misao screamed happily into the commlinks. "All fighters haul tail and make for open space! This baby's going up in flames!"

"Misao, I think we need to work on the professionalism of your combat communication," Aoshi suggested.

0-0-0-0-0

"I'm a bad person, aren't I."

Kenshin glanced distractedly over at Enishi, who was slumped in the co-pilot's chair, picking miserably at the emergency first aid device that Kenshin had clamped onto his injured arm. "What?"

"Me. I'm bad. Neesan is not proud of me at all, is she." Enishi started to cry again. "I know it, I know she's not! I can see her in my head, and she's not smiling any mooooore!"

"Enishi," Kenshin said, sounding strained, "this is not the best time." He was frantically trying to familiarize himself with the controls of this Imperial fighter as fast as possible. He had a very strong feeling that they had to get off the Death Star ASAP.

"I knew all along that something wasn't right! I've done such horrible things! I wish I could take it all back! I've wasted my life, and all for a mistake! Niisan, what am I going to do? Can I call you Niisan, by the way? 'Battousai' sounds so formal. It's depressing. Hey, can I take my mask off now? It makes it hard to breathe."

"Aha!" Kenshin had finally found the Go button, and they went rocketing out into space - just in time.

0-0-0-0-0

As the wreckage of the Death Star blossomed in the cloudless blue sky, Sanosuke glanced up from where he was bandaging Megumi's arm. Then he looked over at Kaoru, who was staring at the explosion with a distant look in her eyes. "I'm sure Kenshin wasn't on that thing when it blew," he tried to reassure her.

She looked over at him and smiled a wan smile. "He wasn't. 'Cause if he was, I'll kill him."

Sanosuke sweatdropped. "Right." Then he looked back down at Megumi, who raised an eyebrow.

"Sanosuke, I am a doctor and perfectly capable of treating myself. In addition to that, there is nothing wrong with my arm."

He smiled. "Yes there is. Lie still. I'll take care of you." As his eyes held hers, his fingers crept slowly down her arm, carefully took hold of her hand, raised it to his lips, kissed it softly.

She smiled back. Then she impatiently pulled her hand out of his, grabbed his head, and pulled it to hers for the commencement of a serious make-out session.

Kaoru noticed neither this nor the ecstatic cheering of the Ewoks. She was still searching the sky.

0-0-0-0-0

That night, a safe distance from the celebration party, an awkward set of introductions were going on. "Guys," Kenshin said nervously, "this is Enishi, but he goes by Yukishiro now. I'm sure you heard of him. He'll be working with us from now on, that he will."

"I'm a good guy now," Yukishiro announced. He waved at the line of grim-faced Alliance members.

"Kenshin," Kaoru growled. "In case you haven't noticed, this is _Darth Enishi_ you've brought here."

"Yeah, he just said that," Yukishiro pointed out. "Hey, Niisan, can I listen to Neesan's holo-diary now? Please? I want to hear her voice again."

_"'Niisan?"_ Kaoru choked.

Kenshin shot her a nervous smile before saying to his brother, "Yes. Here. Hey, um...why don't you go watch it off to the side there?"

"Okay," Yukishiro agreed happily, clutching the little holo-generator reverently to his chest. "Whatever you say, Niisan."

Kenshin watched him walk away, swallowed, then turned resignedly back to his friends and prepared to get beaten up again.

0-0-0-0-0

Somehow, the droids had gotten lost. Yahiko was wandering through the woods with Tsubame tagging trustingly behind him, trying to follow the sounds of music and cheering in the distance, but for some reason there was light coming from a different direction. Torn and unwilling for them to split up, Yahiko decided that it couldn't hurt to follow the blue light a few steps before turning back to what he _thought_ was the right direction.

"Oh, Yahiko!" Tsubame exclaimed delightedly when they came upon the source of the light. "It's a fairy! They're supposed to be mythical creatures, but look, this one's real!"

The beautiful blue-haired woman smiled beatifically. "I am the Blue Fairy. You children are hard workers, and deserve a reward. Yahiko, would you like to be a real boy? Tsubame-chan, would you like to be a real girl?

As if they'd say no, right?

0-0-0-0-0

An hour or so later, the party on Endor was in full swing, mirroring celebrations across the entire galaxy. Kenshin, battered but forgiven, watched happily as his friends were truly able to relax and enjoy themselves for the first time in so long - for the first time in perhaps ever. At last the galaxy could breathe easy, free from the Empire's yoke of oppression.

Kaoru was trying to teach the confused ex-droids how to move to the music, since it was their first time using flesh and blood limbs rather than mechanical ones. Tsubame seemed eager to learn, though Yahiko looked more like he was furiously doing kenjutsu training rather than dancing. The effect was enhanced by the old shinai Kenshin had bequeathed to him, which he seemed highly reluctant to let go of.

Megumi was laughing at the horrified look on Sanosuke's face as their slow-dancing was broken up by a flock of enthusiastic teddy bears. Yukishiro was sitting against a tree, crying as he listened to his sister's story from her own lips, his arm around one of the two Ewoks who had cuddled up to him, purring comfortingly.

At one point, Kenshin looked over to see two ghostly figures watching the festivities from the trees. He approached them slowly, looking from Tomoe to Shishio. Shishio grinned and shot him the finger; Tomoe calmly reached out and shoved him away. He toppled with a grunt, disappearing from sight. Then she smiled.

Kenshin smiled also and raised his hand to blow her kiss. He felt arms encircling his shoulders. "What are you looking at?" Kaoru asked, her eyes dancing.

Kenshin turned his head and reached up to clasp her hand, smiling. "This one is looking at someone he loves," he said to both of them.

Grinning, Kaoru planted a quick kiss on his cheek, then tugged him back to where their friends waited. He went with her willingly, though he glanced back for one last look at Himura Tomoe. She raised her hand in blessing and farewell, then turned and walked away, not into darkness, but into light.

Cast  
in order of appearance

MYÔJIN YAHIKO - C-3PO* & R2-D2*

KAMIYA KAORU - Princess Leia Organa

HIMURA KENSHIN (SHINTA) - Luke & Anakin Skywalker

(YUKISHIRO) "OIBORE/GEEZER" - Owen & Cliegg Lars

HIKO SEIJÛRÔ XIII - Old Obi-Wan Kenobi & Yoda

YUKISHIRO ENISHI - Darth Vader & Jar Jar Binks

SAGARA SANOSUKE - Han Solo

TAKANI MEGUMI - Chewbacca

HIRUMA GOHEI - Greedo & Watto*

UDÔ JIN-E - Jabba the Hutt

SHISHIO MAKOTO - Emperor/Chancellor Palpatine

KOMAGATA YUMI

SAITÔ HAJIME (FUJITA GORÔ) - Boba Fett, Jango Fett, & the clone soldiers

SHINOMORI AOSHI - Lando Calrissian

YUKISHIRO TOMOE - Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghost & Padmé Amidala

SANJÔ TSUBAME - C-3PO* & R2-D2*

MAKIMACHI MISAO - The Rancor

HIRUMA KIHEI - Watto*

KATSURA KOGORÔ - Qui-Gon Jinn & young Obi-Wan Kenobi*

KASUMI, AKANE, & SAKURA - Shmi Skywalker

TAKASUGI SHINSAKU - Young Obi-Wan Kenobi*

SETA SÔJIRÔ - Darth Maul & Count Dooku*

GEIN, KUJIRANAMI HYÔGO, INUI BANJIN, OTOWA HYÔKO, & YATSUME MUMYÔI - The Gungans

ARAI AZUSA - Dormé

I'IZUKA

SEKIHARA TAE - Taun We

SEKIHARA SAE - Clone servants

KIYOSATO AKIRA - Count Dooku*

UONUMA USUI - General Grievous

OKINA - The ninja leader on Mustafar


End file.
